And why as a country we will always be divided . Go Canada .
Pierre Poilievre
- Thread starter Tecumsehsbones
- Start date
Seems to me like they already do . I don’t really have thoughts on what it should be , but what it is sure hasn‘t been working and we are more divided then ever before . Having the Senate ,Supreme Court and the Governor General appointed out of the Prime Ministers Office does nothing for national unity .
…& now 10 days later during an election…?
For the Liberals, gone are the days of talking up NDP-driven policy (pharmacare, dental care) and gender balance. Even those policies and their politics aimed at putting Tories on the spot--the consumer price on carbon, the capital gains tax changes --gone and gone. Now it’s about (loosely defined) ‘fiscal responsibility,’ getting conventional and other types of energy to markets outside of the U.S. and breaking down trade barriers between provinces.
If that all sounds familiar, it’s because it is. The Conservatives were so successful in their opposition to the carbon tax and Trudeau, they will no longer be able to fight an entire election against them. They’ve been talking about getting oil and gas out of Canada for years, and though Tories will argue the Liberals won’t actually do it, the fact the now Mark Carney-led party is talking about it – even that is not something imaginable in this way just a year ago.
The next five weeks will be Carney trying to paint similarities between Poilievre & Trump, while Carney himself will try to ignore the fact that the Liberals that he’s now the leader of themselves have been in power for the last decade.
The NDP will try to paint Poilievre as being to the right of them (that won’t be hard), & Carney claiming Poilievre’s platform as his own as also being to the right of the NDP, & thus they must be the same.
The difference being, the Conservatives are consistently consistent in what they’re saying & have been saying…vs the Liberals saying what they think they need to say for the next five weeks and then…????
The Liberals have stopped (within the last two weeks?) trying to out-Left the NDP, & are now trying to pretend they’re conservative for the next five weeks? Then what? What do they turn into April 29th?
Seems like all the good things are found in low density population areas. Farms, mineral resources, hydro power among them. The head office in a higher density population area is a convenience thing and would never go on it's own if it didn't have the other.
Unfortunately those in the low density population areas rely on the high density population area to represent them in parliament where the gap continues to grow in the wrong direction.
I would definitely be pounding the highways of Western Canada if I were the Green Party given the area is so misrepresented. The only reason I say Green is because the party is already there (for the taking) and know of no other that could ramp up in time. Change the name to Western Bloc as soon as possible.
And what would be fair?
Sure we could try Rep by Pop, but sometimes that's not exactly fair either because higher populations would have more representations. Which then leaves 'a tiny region of one province' at the mercy of larger places all because people don't want a "city life".
I agree the system overall needs to be changed, but the how is the issue.
Western alienation - Wikipedia
We need more people to think about this.Western alienation - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Preston Manning won 52 seats as leader of the newly formed Reform party in 93. The precedent is there.
Rep by Pop is what we have now. It doesn't work with the huge disparity in the size of electoral areas. There are rural ridings larger than entire cities. I have been watching what Fair Vote Canada is pushing as well, which is a transferable ballot. It also has problems, like giving seats to The Party for gaining a certain percentage of the vote. The idea is that every party has seats representative of their number of the total votes. Which completely bypasses the whole idea of voting for the best local rep, which makes it even harder for independents. I am tired of MPs and MLAs that bring the party line to the riding, instead of taking our concerns to the rulers.
It is more like 10 or better to our 1 vote when size of the riding is compared. There are ridings bigger than the whole GTA, but they only get 1 vote in the house.
There is no way it is fair for one riding having 100,000 people having the same number of seats as a riding with 1 million people if you base it on geographical areas. I think a proportional representation system might be fairer. It was what TrueDope ran on in 2015 but he backed off when he found he would lose with it. But you would lose your local MP and it would be harder for parties to campaign because all the stuff that is done by the candidates now would need to be done by the party as a whole.
To clarify, I meant Proportional Rep, not Rep By Pop in my last post. Sorry 'bout that.
Back to the point - I think any system we would look at needs to consider that currently, regions of the country elect their MP not necessarily because it's the best person, but because of the party.
My region, for example, NEVER votes Blue in Federal elections, because of the huge French population we have and they will NOT vote Conservative unless the liberal MP really fucks up. And since the current one is Dominic LeBlanc, it's pretty guaranteed we'll go Liberal next election (his reputation but moreso his FAMILY having the history they do, and of course, he's French). Making any inroads in this riding is next to impossible for anyone but Liberals. We've had CLOSE races, but only once have we ever had someone not Liberal.
Beauséjour (electoral district) - Wikipedia
And we're not the only riding like this.
So when there's situations like this, you are pretty fucked with how to make voting 'fair'.
I was responding to tax. But point taken. My riding is always Liberal. The MP is a bit of an ass probably because he knows that even with TrueDope in charge, he would be re-elected. The only thing that may change this is the ridings are being re-distributed in Toronto. We are going from 25 to 24 so I will be in a new riding this time. Not sure where in the old riding was the Liberal bastion but maybe I will be rid of it now and my vote will count.To clarify, I meant Proportional Rep, not Rep By Pop in my last post. Sorry 'bout that.
Back to the point - I think any system we would look at needs to consider that currently, regions of the country elect their MP not necessarily because it's the best person, but because of the party.
My region, for example, NEVER votes Blue in Federal elections, because of the huge French population we have and they will NOT vote Conservative unless the liberal MP really fucks up. And since the current one is Dominic LeBlanc, it's pretty guaranteed we'll go Liberal next election (his reputation but moreso his FAMILY having the history they do, and of course, he's French). Making any inroads in this riding is next to impossible for anyone but Liberals. We've had CLOSE races, but only once have we ever had someone not Liberal.
Beauséjour (electoral district) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
And we're not the only riding like this.
So when there's situations like this, you are pretty fucked with how to make voting 'fair'.
I do vote for the local MP as well. I have not voted for my primary party because of their candidate before. I always have.a second choice.
I was correcting myself for the initial post I made/comment to Tax where I brought up rep by pop. Since you used the right term, that's why I replied quoting you. Sorry if it got confusing.
Sadly even if they changed the ridings in NB, unless the one I live in is split between French and English, there's likely no chance of anyone but a Liberal being elected (maybe NDP or Green if they put up a good candidate, though I doubt even then).
Wouldn't need more seats, just a weighted vote, like they do in Regional district votes.
You won't find a riding with 1 million people anyway. All ridings have roughly the same number of people. It is the regional thing that fucks large rural ridings.When an area the size of Greater Toronto has 1 seat and GTA has 20? decisions get made by people uneffected by them.
The same thing happens provincially, on a smaller scale. The North half of Vancouver Island has 1 MLA. Victoria has 11 all by itself.
This is where the Pro Rep people make their point. Sort of. The problem is, they relate it to "The Party", as if we are voting for a party, not the individual candidate. I would like to see more independents win, but the system is rigged against them. And naturally, all the parties work together to keep it this way.To clarify, I meant Proportional Rep, not Rep By Pop in my last post. Sorry 'bout that.
Back to the point - I think any system we would look at needs to consider that currently, regions of the country elect their MP not necessarily because it's the best person, but because of the party.
My region, for example, NEVER votes Blue in Federal elections, because of the huge French population we have and they will NOT vote Conservative unless the liberal MP really fucks up. And since the current one is Dominic LeBlanc, it's pretty guaranteed we'll go Liberal next election (his reputation but moreso his FAMILY having the history they do, and of course, he's French). Making any inroads in this riding is next to impossible for anyone but Liberals. We've had CLOSE races, but only once have we ever had someone not Liberal.
Beauséjour (electoral district) - Wikipedia
And we're not the only riding like this.
So when there's situations like this, you are pretty fucked with how to make voting 'fair'.
I have voted independent before, because I that that was the best person to represent our area. Also voted for the Pirate party one time, because their candidate was the only one that told the truth at the all candidates meeting. When asked what they would do if elected, he said " We are going to lie, cheat, and steal from you, just like all the other parties".
The reason Toronto has 24 seats (this election) is because it has more people. They should have more MPs than rural Alberta with only 1 riding with 1/24 of the population density. Otherwise too much will be decided by the rural people. They would get more vote.
This is why a proportional system may be an answer. Or a balanced EEE senate may alleviate the regional concerns.
Tax Slave has a point , the wealth is often created in the less populated areas , fishing , mining , logging agriculture. The people in those remote areas live in a different reality from the heavily populated urban areas . To often those with no skin in the game are deciding on things they have little understanding of .