Electronic Voting Not an Option…. yet.
Following the panel discussion on voter engagement of young people at Ryerson University recently backbench Liberal MPP Arthur Potts proposes that the voting age should be lowered two years, to…
Rural
Democratic Renewal
Recently Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, Progressive Conservative interim leader Vic Fedeli, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, and Green Leader Mike Schreiner recently gathered at Ryerson University to discuss – not to…
The Tyranny of the Click
A new study has found that overwhelming majority of Canadians believe in the critical role of journalism to democracy, and support more policies to defend the industry. “Financial pressures have…
Democracy Scale.
The Economist Intelligence Unit released on Wednesday its 2017 Democracy Index, which ranks 167 countries on a 0 to 10 scale. Only countries with scores above 8 are categorised as…
Democracy in Crisis
Freedom House, the U.S.-based institute which surveys the progress of democracy, civil society, freedom of speech and the media round the world has produced a report headlined “Democracy in Crisis”…
Guilty Until Proven Innocent.
Recently there have been a spate of ladies coming forward saying they have be subject to unwanted sexual advances ranging from verbal suggestions to actual physical touching or ‘interference’. It…
Speaking Truth to Power.
By now most readers will have read that Sen. Jeff Flake ripped Trump a new one last Wednesday in a speech in the U.S. Senate and perhaps read some extracts…
Shades of Orwell
The thought police are increasingly active in Trumps Americka, ‘The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or…
The Death of Newspapers & the Birth of a Wiki.
Its not so much the death of a newspaper as the death of news from a variety of sources in any given community be it in print or on line……..…
Policticialy correct or a step backwards?
A group of activists called on the Ontario government to ban the practice of stationing uniformed police officers at high schools across the province after the Toronto District School Board…
Mixed Messages
Apparently some MPPs who regularly vote for or against long and complex pieces of legislation without fully studying it personally (they all blindly vote much of the time as told…
Internet Echo Chamber
The problem is the explosion of communication means: the internet, social media, 24 hours a day. They have opened access to information to more people than we can say, and…
No One Is Listening
Below a few extracts from the 128 page report by the measuring democracy people at Samaraa non-partisan charitable champion of increased civic engagement. In spring 2017, Samara Canada surveyed Members…
The Demise of Democracy
A recent post by Owen over at Northern Reflections brought my attention to this highlighting an “investigation” by a long time former MP. Both major parties have made a mockery…
Is Facebook a threat to democracy?
Regular readers of this blog / forum (all two or three of you) will know I am no great fan of Facecrap and in fact do not subscribe to it…
Grey Bruce Area Heath Care
Previously published at ‘The Rural Canadian’This year has been a bit traumatic for both myself and some other family members health wise, non of us had previously not had much…
Independent Caucus’s for the Senate
The Senate has just voted for a major shake-up of how members of the Red Chamber align themselves by allowing nine or more members to form a caucus, a substantial…
Preferential Ballot Recommended for New Brunswick
An independent commission on electoral reform in New Brunswick isrecommending the province adopt a preferential ballot for choosing members of the legislature. The commission’s report, released Friday morning, says that…
Preferential Ballot Recommended for New Brunswick
An independent commission on electoral reform in New Brunswick isrecommending the province adopt a preferential ballot for choosing members of the legislature. The commission’s report, released Friday morning, says that…
Tending the Garden
“You have to tend to this garden of democracy, otherwise things can fall apart fairly quickly. And we’ve seen societies where that happens,” Former president Barack Obama In these days…