Collingwood elects all of its council at large. There are no ward systems for local or neighbourhood voting. But is it the best system for Collingwood? I don’t think so, and want it to be discussed by the next council. And maybe a referendum question on the next ballot. At-large
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Matt Bruening comments on the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s research showing that minimum-wage workers are unable to afford basic housing across the U.S. – Sarah Butler reports on the UK’s latest parliamentary study of precarious work. Jordan Press reports on the state
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Ed Finn reminds us that ending child poverty makes good economic sense in addition to being a moral necessity: The same huge financial benefit would be reaped in Canada from an equivalent investment in curbing poverty here. Based on the variance in populations
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin writes that job numbers inflated by part-time employment shouldn’t distract us from the consumer debt and wage stagnation which are living more and more people with precarious financial situations. Ben Leubsdorf reports on the recognition by members of the American
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Good news coming on electoral reform says Andrew Coyne
In a thoughtful article Coyne ranges over the positive news springing up at levels below the federal level, regarding changes to our undemocratic first past the post electoral system (the one that PM Trudeau favours, given his decision to walk away from his campaign promise to end it). Ontario is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Owen Jones writes that excessive reliance on corporate profiteers is the reason why the UK’s trains don’t run on time. And Nora Loreto argues that postal banking is needed (among other reasons) to rein in abuses by Canada’s biggest banks. – Shannon Daub
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Tick, tock, tick, tock. Opposition to Daylight Saving Time in Alberta since the 1970s.
Edmonton-South West MLA Thomas Dang announced last week that he plans to introduce a private members’ bill into Alberta’s Legislative Assembly in the 2017 spring session that would abolish Daylight Saving Time. The biannual practice of turning the clock forward… Continue Reading →
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Italy’s Looming Referendum Risk Splits Southern Europe’s Bond Markets – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Italian 10-year yields are now nearly half a percentage point above their Spanish cousins, the highest in five years. Source: Italy’s Looming Referendum Risk Splits Southern Europe’s Bond Markets – MoneyBeat – WSJ Filed under: Eurozone crisis Tagged: Italy, Referendum, Renzi
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the impression that our votes for change don’t produce the expected results can lead to the public putting up with a destructive alternative just to have an alternative at all. For further reading…– For background on Prince Edward Island’s electoral reform plebiscite, see Susan Bradley’s report on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On decision points
Needless to say, it’s disappointing that there now doesn’t seem to be any prospect of a shift to a more proportional federal electoral system without a referendum. But the NDP’s move to build a consensus among the opposition parties on a referendum offering a choice between mixed-member proportional representation and
Continue readingCuriosityCat: PEI leads the way in remedying our democratic deficit!
Way to go PEI! Voters strike a blow for a better democracy; our federal government and other provinces should pay heed: A non-binding plebiscite on electoral reform in Prince Edward Island has shown voters support a switch to a form of proportional representation. Mixed member proportional representation was the most
Continue readingCuriosityCat: PEI leads the way in remedying our democratic deficit!
Way to go PEI! Voters strike a blow for a better democracy; our federal government and other provinces should pay heed: A non-binding plebiscite on electoral reform in Prince Edward Island has shown voters support a switch to a form of proportional representation. Mixed member proportional representation was the most
Continue readingThe Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Brexit: How Not To Do Referendums
In a semi-surprising move Britain voted to leave the European Union late last week.There has been endless discussion on how bad this might be for Britain, where thecampaign to remain in the EU went wrong, and what this means for the Union’sfuture (both of them actually). What has received less
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The Votes Have Been Counted – Will The European Common Market Unravel Further?
The shock will take some time to wear off, especially in Britain or what may be left of Britain as a result of the referendum vote to leave the European Union. Of course, they remain Read more…
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Is a Referendum the Best Way to Determine an Electoral System?
.Is a Referendum the Best Way to Determine an Electoral System? Theoretically a referendum may seem like the most obvious and democratic way to determine whether electoral reform is desirable in Canada; but, as we have seen with referendums at the provincial level in BC, PEI, and Ontario, the results
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Is a Referendum the Best Way to Determine an Electoral System?
.Is a Referendum the Best Way to Determine an Electoral System?
*Cf. Robin Sears: “The Conservatives are already demanding a referendum on any change to the electoral system, secure in the knowledge that that would mean certain defeat for any reform. Some gullible journalists have defended a referendum as an essential democratic test. What that naively fails to recall, of course, is that there has never been a non-partisan “democratic” referendum. The final choice will inevitably be political and require partisan approval.”**Why would they? First-past-the-post is not on the agenda, as the Liberal election platform clearly says: “We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.We will convene an all-party Parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms, such as ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting, and online voting.This committee will deliver its recommendations to Parliament. Within 18 months of forming government, we will introduce legislation to enact electoral reform.”***Under FPP, less populated rural ridings carry as much representational weight in parliament as do densely populated urban ridings. Because of that discrepancy, they are really less democratically representational. Both a ranking ballot system and PR in particular would in fact be more representational of all voters in a given riding and thus more democratic.
****This has already begun in rural newspapers and even The Globe and Mail.
Montreal Simon: Why We Don’t Need A Referendum on Electoral Reform
There's nothing that scares the Cons as much as electoral reform, and Justin Trudeau's plan to scrap the so called first past the post system.They know that it would cripple their chances of ever ruling Canada again, and that the only thing th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On voting from experience
If I have any concern with Nathan Cullen’s suggestion that Canada hold a referendum on electoral reform only after seeing a different system in action, it’s that it may concede too much to the people looking to set up roadblocks in the face of a clear …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On twisted outcomes
At the moment, plenty of Canadians are looking forward to waking up on October 20 and finding that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have lost the election, to be replaced by a government determined by the MPs elected by voters. And we should certainly be hoping for, and working toward, that outcome.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Greece – Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
Greek voters appear poised to rather narrowly reject another round of austerity measures demanded by the IMF, the European Commission and the EBC. It’s something of a “heads I win, tails you lose” proposition. Be it Yes or No, the Greek people are pretty much screwed either way. As observed
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