The NDP leader Jack Layton said that Quebec would just need 50% +1 to be it’s own country. That is just crazy. You can’t just destroy and split up a country with a simple majority. I would not accept if just 50% +1 of Quebec wants to be it’s own countr…
Continue readingTag: Electoral Reform
Northern Reflections: A Broken System
Angelo Perischilli and I share few opinions. But this morning, I find myself heartily agreeing with him. In today’s Toronto Star, he writes that Ruth Ellen Brosseau can “take credit for exposing the inconsistencies that are weakening the Canadian polit…
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Why Cats Elect Dogs
Alternate Voting – or AV – will have massive implications with respect to voting in Canada (and will hopefully marginalize all of those who vote for dogs instead of cats).
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Landslide Election Victory That Isn’t
I initially had a vague plan for this post but have decided to go with whatever comes to mind to create an election commentary medley of sorts. Actually, it more resembles a rather large balloon filled with statistics and cynicism and it keeps growing! The Conservatives have won a majority government and this ensures their […]
Continue readingFirst-past-the-post creates a conservative English Canada vs. a progressive Quebec
The NDP scored a number of firsts for itself in the 2011 election: the first time with seats in the triple digits, the first time as Official Opposition, the first time with strength in Quebec, and so on.
This is also the first time it has beaten the …
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Our democracy is broken
In his new job as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Jack Layton has pledged to “fix Ottawa.” I’ve taken this to mean he will lead by example in hope of teaching the children to play nicely. I wish him luck. The problem with our democracy goes far beyond Stephen Harper’s well documented contempt for […]
Pop The Stack: Hobbits for Electoral Reform
Dear Wise Races of the United Kingdom of Middle Earth, Please forgive a humble Hobbit for bothering you but I just wanted to write about an urgent matter of democracy. Here in Hobbiton we have just had a Shire-wide election. Let’s just say that I’m fairly miffed about the results.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: PoliticsRespun.org Election Night Liveblog, maybe
Tonight’s the night many of us have been waiting for – whether it be because we trudged to a poll today, stood in line with credit card bills, drivers licenses, and other sundry pieces of identification, were handed a ballot, and promptly marked a little “x” next to the least offensive candidate, and now the […]
Continue readingPop The Stack: Liberals Turn My Dreams a Whiter Shade of Pale
I just flipped on the radio and Michael Ignatieff is talking about electoral reform. Am I in some kind of Fringe-like alternate universe where my dreams (ahem, remember The Liberal Nuclear Option?) are about to become reality? Well, not exactly. Iggy…I believe you have a large bucket of ice world water for me? I’ve said […]
Politics, Re-Spun: A Compendium of My Prime Minister Layton Posts
I’ve enjoyed writing four pieces about the Prime Minster Layton concept in the last 2.5 years. Originally, it was a wishful thinking hyper long-shot in a prorogation crisis at a time when the Liberals had no firm leader. Then in June 2010 it was a curiosity when polling indicated a Jack Layton-led coalition with the […]
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Debate: Canadian Values Win
The most interesting thing I noticed about the debate was where all the leaders, or at least all of the federalist leaders, agreed. These were on what I would consider to be the most basic of Canadian values, but values that many of us suspect are not …
Continue readingPample the Moose: Debates, Debates, Let’s Have More Debates!
Most of my current students are too young to remember the now infamous election debate clashes between Brian Mulroney and John Turner. So I like to show them the Free Trade Clash from 1988 or the patronage kerfuffle of 1984. Both debates were widely …
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber Pushing for Two Party System
It started with Ignatieff joining Harper’s anti-coalition bandwagon, the common message being that the big boys don’t share power with the little guys and it’s extended to the push for a debate between just Harper and Ignatieff because they think that …
Continue readingI’d like to vote, but my conscience objects
So we are to have yet another election. On May 2nd we will have the opportunity to exercise our democratic franchise. We will have the opportunity as free and equal citizens to elect representatives to govern us. Well, actually, we won’t. If I were to …
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Democracy Election
While thousands worldwide sacrifice their lives for the right to free elections Canadians complain about having one.That is not to say there are no reasons for some Canadians not to want an election. Certainly if you support the Reformatories you have …
Continue readingPop The Stack: Tyranny of the Majority
Ok, some somebody doesn’t know what Tyranny means or actually, what democracy means. That somebody today is Scott Armstrong. Here’s the quote from the Globe and Mail article regarding this week’s committee about obtaining government estimates of spending: Fellow Tory Scott Armstrong suggested opposition parties are abusing their dominant position in a minority Parliament, making unreasonable […]
Pop The Stack: Tyranny of the Majority
Ok, some somebody doesn’t know what Tyranny means or actually, what democracy means. That somebody today is Scott Armstrong. Here’s the quote from the Globe and Mail article regarding this week’s committee about obtaining government estimates of spending: Fellow Tory Scott Armstrong suggested opposition parties are abusing their dominant position in
Continue readingPop The Stack: Write your MP about the Electoral Reform Motion
This is an email I just sent my member of parliament. If you care about electoral reform you should too. You can find your MP here. Here is the debate that took place in the House on it last week. Hello Joyce, I get a lot of your fliers in the mail and I am […]
Pop The Stack: What does a single vote weigh?
So I’ve got a comment on an arcane voting procedure issue for a current party leadership contest…sounds exciting huh? Everybody gather round! The party is the BC Liberal party. The issue is weighting a votes by riding. The current rules say that each party member will get one vote towards the leader. The new rule […]
Democracy Under Fire: For Richer or for Poorer
It seems that there are
still some folks that cannot see the difference between taxpayer
funding of political partys by a per vote subsidy and taxpayer
funding by tax credits for individual donation, and the The
Jurist had a great breakdown of the nu…