The Canadian federal general election has come and gone and from what I can gather most Canadians are pretty well satisfied with the results: a majority government, the centre left in opposition, the blasted sovereignists almost swept completely off th…
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the disgruntled democrat: Huge Distortions of the Popular Vote Mire Canadian Election Results
How is it that a supposedly developed country, a member of the G-8, endures a medieval electoral system?The Conservatives’s quest for what Canadians erroneously refer to as a majority government was fulfilled, largely due to an outrageous distortion of…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Canada’s Facebook Election Changes the Face of the Nation
Yes, I’ve seen the latest polls and have jumped on the bandwagon. I’m putting aside the pessimist belief that the vagaries of the voting system would undo the sudden rise in support of the NPD.There’s something historic going on and it has more than j…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Canada’s Progressives Are About to Get Screwed by a Corrupt Electoral System
The sudden rise of the NDP in the polls gives reason to hope that the political landscape is about to change fundamentally.Don’t bet the farm on it.What the pundits don’t say is that the NDP is far from playing on an even playing field. As anybody who…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Are the Political Planets Re-aligning in Quebec?
Elsewhere in Canada, the political continuum is from right to left. Here in Quebec, the parties have been aligned on the basis of a federalist-nationalist allegiance for more than 30 years. The question on everyone’s mind within the political class i…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: The NDP Has Gone Viral in Quebec
I woke up this morning to see confirmation in two polls that with regard to voting intentions in the upcoming federal elections Quebecers have gone viral in their support of the NDP.You need to know that the Quebec population is very closely knit. I’m…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: North America Has Become a Huge Fat Farm
Last year, I had the shock of my life when I visited the US. I had never seen so many super obese people in all my life. Statistics say that one in three Americans is obese, but I wasn’t prepared for how big people have become. During my vacation,…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: The Sacred Cows No Politician Dares To Touch
Thank God the Stanley Cup Playoffs start this evening. This has to be the dullest federal election since Sir John A. swore off the bottle. Same old. Same old.Yet, around the world things are different. Despots are being disposed, countries teeter o…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Tired of Having the News Dumbed Down? Turn Off the Tube and Get An iPad!
I’ve enjoyed my iPad for about a year now. For someone who is an info-holic and works in communications, it’s changed the way I access information and there’s no going back.High definition touch screen with which I get the news on line from around the…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: In Canada the Powers that Be Conspire to Suppress the Emergence of Alternative Voices
Catch 22 for the Green Party of Canada. Because the Greens haven’t won a seat in Parliament, their leader can’t participate in the televised leaders debate. Because their leader doesn’t participate in the leaders debate, the Greens can’t win a seat i…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Canada Should Look Down Under to Address Its Democratic Deficit
I think that most people would now recognize that the world has moved on and Canada is still stuck with it colonial system of governance. No modern democratic state has a lower house elected by first-past-the-post and an upper house that is unelected….
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: We All Lose When Only the Winners Gain Representation
While campaigning against the alternative vote option on the ballot in the UK referendum on the voting system, British Prime Minister, David Cameron makes the following analogy that underscores the dominant belief for those who support the first-past-…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Contesting Canada’s Shamocracy
“Although we like to think of ourselves as living in a mature democracy, we live, instead, in something little better than a benign dictatorship, not under a strict one-party rule, but under a one-party-plus system beset by the factionalism, regionalis…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: The Bloc Quebecois Has the Last Laugh Since Canada Has Become Ungovernable
One thing is for sure. Once the writ is dropped, partisan interests prevail and the leaders can’t see the forest for the trees.For example, all this fear mongering about the participation of the Bloc in a ruling coalition misses the point. Indeed, wh…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Truth Be Told Coalition Governments Have Become the Norm in Westminster Parliaments
The red door and the blue door. Forming a coalition with the socialists and the separatists. Give me a frickin break.Here we are about to embark on our fourth general election in seven years and the two leaders of Canada’s major political parties are…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Forget an Election. We Need a Referendum on the Electoral System!
So here we are. Yet again facing the possibility of a general election that won’t resolve anything. A few seats will change hands, but for the most part the distribution of seats will still give us another Conservative minority government. So, why b…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: How to Best Stop Natural Gas Drilling in Quebec? Give the Administrative Regions the Power to Revoke Corporate Personhood.
Like the majority of Quebecois, I feel that we are being taken for a ride when it comes to the drilling for natural gas using the controversial hydofracking process.Essentially, a toxic mixture of water and known carcinogens are pumped into the ground …
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Corporate Fascism
If there is a God, he must ask for our pardon.(Words scratched onto the walls of the barracks in the Mauthausen concentration camp)There are times when we learn things that we may prefer not to know.I had this experience after visiting the Mauthausen M…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: Hey Quebec! What Are You Waiting For? Take It to the Streets
Maybe it’s just me. When the president of the association of the province’s crown attorneys declares publicly that the Quebec government is acting in a manner that is unconstitutional, irresponsible, and immoral, you would think that given the politic…
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: The Tyranny of Class in the Anglo-American Empire
Money, money, money. Lots of it. Can’t get enough. Makes the world go around. Keep your grubby hands off my pile.Familiar words? They should be. These are the sentiments at the heart of the Anglo-American Empire. Those with the cash rig the rule…
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