The NDP has released a first look at the prioritized resolutions from this weekend’s #vancon2011 (PDF). And while most of them may not come as too much surprise (or appear particularly controversial), there are a few which look highly noteworthy in dev…
Continue readingTag: Democratic Reform
Accidental Deliberations: Worth discussing
One of the few times when the NDP has always been able to count on pundit attention in the past has been its policy conventions, when commentators often churn out an easy column or post by gleefully mocking some of the resolutions put forward for debat…
Continue readingThey Call Me "Mr. Sinister": Hit A Nerve
I like Brigette DePape. She pisses off the right people. The people she pisses off are Conservatives and Liberals who are offended by her use of the term, “Arab Spring”. “Surely”, they bleat, “we are not living in a dictatorship (well except for that w…
Continue readingNot an Official Green Party Canada Site: Green Party Starts to capitalise on Debate on Debates?
Green Party of Canada is starting to leverage the debate about the debate, and relate it back to policy, and electoral obectives. 
Not an Official Green Party Canada Site: Green Party Canada: Week 1 of the 2011 Election Campaign
The Green Party is getting great publicity from their exclusion from the televised debate. They should have been ready to turn that into something electorally significant, instead of simply crowing over a bunch of free publicity. Here is how they can really benefit from this almost an election issue.
Democratic Progress: Finance
The CPC government hates the per-vote public subsidy. A lot. For two reasons.
1) They’re ideologically opposed to spending money on democracy, because democracy = government
2) (and more importantly) it’s keeping the other parties above water, in the…
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Well, that was fun! But a fond farewell
Over the past three months, I’ve written extensively about the BC Liberal leadership race and made public my struggles to make the right choices.
First, I wondered if I should join the BC Liberal Party. No other way existed to vote so directly for Bri…
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Well, that was fun! But a fond farewell
Over the past three months, I’ve written extensively about the BC Liberal leadership race and made public my struggles to make the right choices. First, I wondered if I should join the BC Liberal Party. No other way existed to vote so directly for British Columbia’s 35th premier. Therefore, I
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Well, that was fun! But a fond farewell
Over the past three months, I’ve written extensively about the BC Liberal leadership race and made public my struggles to make the right choices. First, I wondered if I should join the BC Liberal Party. No other way existed to vote so directly for British Columbia’s 35th premier. Therefore, I
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Party Leadership Race – Done
VOTED!
As a spanking new member of the BC Liberal Party, I have just voted for the party’s next leader and this province’s 35th Premier. It came down to a matter of choosing among flavours of vanilla, but ultimately the choices were clear given the c…
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Party Leadership Race – Done
VOTED! As a spanking new member of the BC Liberal Party, I have just voted for the party’s next leader and this province’s 35th Premier. It came down to a matter of choosing among flavours of vanilla, but ultimately the choices were clear given the candidates’ proposed policies. Here’s how
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Party Leadership Race – Done
VOTED! As a spanking new member of the BC Liberal Party, I have just voted for the party’s next leader and this province’s 35th Premier. It came down to a matter of choosing among flavours of vanilla, but ultimately the choices were clear given the candidates’ proposed policies. Here’s how
Continue readingDemocratic Progress: Parliamentary Reform
Aaron Wherry has some interesting suggestions for how we might reform the House (I summarize):
Elect committee chairs by vote of the entire House. Involve committees in legislative design
Empower Speaker. Allow Speaker to determine whether a question…
Challenging the Commonplace: Why Not a Metered Internet?
The headline of the Globe and Mail article asks the question, Why Not a Metered Internet? The argument that follows defends the big telecoms in terms of market forces: for example, the cost of infrastructure building. Here’s a different answer to the question: with a metered Internet we would have
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Why Not a Metered Internet?
The headline of the Globe and Mail article asks the question, Why Not a Metered Internet?
The argument that follows defends the big telecoms in terms of market forces: for example, the cost of infrastructure building.
Here’s a different answer to the…
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Why Not a Metered Internet?
The headline of the Globe and Mail article asks the question, Why Not a Metered Internet? The argument that follows defends the big telecoms in terms of market forces: for example, the cost of infrastructure building. Here’s a different answer to the question: with a metered Internet we would have
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Party Weighted Vote Proposal
The BC Liberal Party on February 12th will decide whether to adopt the weighted vote or to retain the current one-member-one-vote policy. It will take a two-thirds majority for the motion on the weighted vote to pass. Weighting votes, goes the reasoning, would be more inclusive of less populated regions
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Party Weighted Vote Proposal
The BC Liberal Party on February 12th will decide whether to adopt the weighted vote or to retain the current one-member-one-vote policy. It will take a two-thirds majority for the motion on the weighted vote to pass. Weighting votes, goes the reasoning, would be more inclusive of less populated regions
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Party Weighted Vote Proposal
The BC Liberal Party on February 12th will decide whether to adopt the weighted vote or to retain the current one-member-one-vote policy. It will take a two-thirds majority for the motion on the weighted vote to pass.
Weighting votes, goes the reasoni…
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: BC Liberal Leadership: Order of preference 2
[UPDATED Jan 20, 10:00 a.m.]
My three top issues that will guide my decision remain as before:
Democratic reform. Support for greater independence and return of powers to local governments. This is the key issue for me. We work, play, live and die in…
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