What Don't You Like About Canada?
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Canada
Canada’s Electoral Dysfunction
By Larry Gordon, Fair Vote Canada
Oct 17, 2008, 16:47
Further to the Axis of Logic article entitled Another triumph in Canadian democracy, consider the following email message issued October 15 by Fair Vote Canada.
It's been a remarkable 48 hours.
In the seven years since Fair Vote Canada was launched, we have never experienced the level of media and public interest in voting reform that we are seeing right now. Yesterday, four FVC spokespeople were kept busy just handling media interviews. New memberships are pouring in, along with people wanting to volunteer.
Momentum for electoral reform is growing. We thank you for your continuing support. Below is our post-election press release.
Larry Gordon
Executive Director
Fair Vote Canada
Electoral dysfunction, yet again. Greens deserved more than 20 seats - voting system also punished New Democrats, western Liberals and urban Conservatives.
Once again, Canada's antiquated first-past-the-post system wasted millions of votes, distorted results, severely punished large blocks of voters, exaggerated regional differences, created an unrepresentative Parliament and contributed to a record low voter turnout.
The chief victims of the October 14 federal election were:
- Green Party: 940,000 voters supporting the Green Party sent no one to Parliament, setting a new record for the most votes cast for any party that gained no parliamentary representation. By comparison, 813,000 Conservative voters in Alberta alone were able to elect 27 MPs.
- Prairie Liberals and New Democrats: In the prairie provinces, Conservatives received roughly twice the vote of the Liberals and NDP, but took seven times as many seats.
- Urban Conservatives: Similar to the last election, a quarter-million Conservative voters in Toronto elected no one and neither did Conservative voters in Montreal.
- New Democrats: The NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but the voting system gave the Bloc 50 seats, the NDP 37.
"How can anyone consider this democratic representation?" asked Barbara Odenwald, President of Fair Vote Canada.
Had the votes on October 14 been cast under a fair and proportional voting system, Fair Vote Canada projected that the seats allocation would have been approximately as follows:
Conservatives - 38% of the popular vote: 117 seats (not 143)
Liberals - 26% of the popular vote: 81 seats (not 76)
NDP - 18% of the popular vote: 57 seats (not 37)
Bloc - 10% of the popular vote: 28 seats (not 50)
Greens - 7% of the popular vote: 23 seats (not 0)
Odenwald emphasized that any projection on the use of other voting systems must be qualified, as specific system features would affect the exact seat allocations.
"With a different voting system, people would also have voted differently," said Larry Gordon, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada. "There would have been no need for strategic voting. We would likely have seen higher voter turnout. We would have had different candidates - more women, and more diversity of all kinds. We would have had more real choices."
Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a national multi-partisan citizens' campaign to promote voting system reform. FVC was founded in 2001 and has a National Advisory Board of distinguished Canadians from all points on the political spectrum.
The fact that Canadians are so spoiled they've lost the meaning of sacrifice, honour, and the simple pride of a hard days work. We've forgotten what it took to make this country. Rarely does anyone stand up and say "I was wrong and I take full responsibility for my actions" We're mostly "victims" and/or we're owed something.
I like your way of thinking.
To admit that you are wrong is not common these days. But I still practice it.
Take care and the best to you and yours,
regs,
scratch
Thanks scratch, though I try and live up to my own standards I tend to slip into the "dark side of the force" ;-) occasionally.
The sort of tippy-toeing around everyone's feelings political correctness that's robbed us of an identity
Canada
Canada’s Electoral Dysfunction
By Larry Gordon, Fair Vote Canada
Oct 17, 2008, 16:47
blah blah blah.....
"With a different voting system, people would also have voted differently," said Larry Gordon, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada. "There would have been no need for strategic voting. We would likely have seen higher voter turnout. We would have had different candidates - more women, and more diversity of all kinds. We would have had more real choices."
Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a national multi-partisan citizens' campaign to promote voting system reform. FVC was founded in 2001 and has a National Advisory Board of distinguished Canadians from all points on the political spectrum.
I like the fact that my MP is a guy that was voted in by the people in my riding. He's accountable to the people here. He didn't get his seat because he is candidate no 12 on a slate allocated by proportional representation, he's the guy that got the most votes of the local people.
If I want help with a federal issue, I can call him (whether I voted for him or not). He's accountable to the people here, not to some percentage of the national vote. What's more democratic than voting for a specific person? His job is to look after his riding.
That's what I want, I like it that way.
• The form of Democracy we all live by today.....
• The way our government plays dumbass political games for political points for their own agendas and rarely ever do half the job they're supposed to.
• The way our government doesn't actually represent, but dictator us by making us vote for the party who will cut us the best deal over the next guy..... it shouldn't be down to deals or limitations on what they will do..... they should work on and fix everything that is a current concern and issue that needs to be addressed, rather then pushed to the side or ignored by putting attention on more trivial issues in order to make them appear that they are actually doing anything.
• I don't like the fact that some people seem to think it is their "God Given" right to dictate and change laws to restrict the freedoms and rights of other people to make their own decisions about their own lives..... all because they gotta get their brownie points from God to feel that they are doing the right thing.
• I don't like the way our government/country pampers and caters 24/7 to Quebec so they can get whatever they want above any other province, because they seem to think they are more special then everybody else, simply because they speak french and have a french culture...... as if everybody else's culture isn't good enough. I don't like how they continually threaten to break off and be their own "Nation" ~ Either fk'n do it or shut the hell up! Either follow the same processes and procedures the rest of the provinces go through, or leave the country and be done with it.
You are not anymore special, you are not anymore distinct then any other province or the people within them, you do not diserve more special treatment then anybody else does...... and if anybody does, it's the Natives..... certainly not Quebec.
• I hate the fact that it always seems like all the work and business/developments seem to head to central Canada and west, all the while the maritimes (The area which the nation grew from in the first place and where democracy first came to North America) is left like a rotting old woman in a retirement home to wither away and die.
• I hate the fact that our government and capitalist pigs put all our dependancy for market into the US and now we are seeing the consequences of those actions.
I got a lot of things I hate.... but I'll leave it at that for now.
Oh and don't worry.... I have a long list of things I hate about pretty much every place.... including outside of Canada.... but since you asked.
• The way our government plays dumbass political games for political points for their own agendas and rarely ever do half the job they're supposed to.
• The way our government doesn't actually represent, but dictator us by making us vote for the party who will cut us the best deal over the next guy..... it shouldn't be down to deals or limitations on what they will do..... they should work on and fix everything that is a current concern and issue that needs to be addressed, rather then pushed to the side or ignored by putting attention on more trivial issues in order to make them appear that they are actually doing anything.
• I don't like the fact that some people seem to think it is their "God Given" right to dictate and change laws to restrict the freedoms and rights of other people to make their own decisions about their own lives..... all because they gotta get their brownie points from God to feel that they are doing the right thing.
• I don't like the way our government/country pampers and caters 24/7 to Quebec so they can get whatever they want above any other province, because they seem to think they are more special then everybody else, simply because they speak french and have a french culture...... as if everybody else's culture isn't good enough. I don't like how they continually threaten to break off and be their own "Nation" ~ Either fk'n do it or shut the hell up! Either follow the same processes and procedures the rest of the provinces go through, or leave the country and be done with it.
You are not anymore special, you are not anymore distinct then any other province or the people within them, you do not diserve more special treatment then anybody else does...... and if anybody does, it's the Natives..... certainly not Quebec.
• I hate the fact that it always seems like all the work and business/developments seem to head to central Canada and west, all the while the maritimes (The area which the nation grew from in the first place and where democracy first came to North America) is left like a rotting old woman in a retirement home to wither away and die.
• I hate the fact that our government and capitalist pigs put all our dependancy for market into the US and now we are seeing the consequences of those actions.
I got a lot of things I hate.... but I'll leave it at that for now.
Oh and don't worry.... I have a long list of things I hate about pretty much every place.... including outside of Canada.... but since you asked.
It is assumed your a possession of the nation at birth which means you are chattel and therefore not free. I also dislike (consuming hatred) of all the subsequent BS that follows thereafter.
It's coming.
Perhaps sooner than we realize.
The `fall` of the United States has put us in a `curious situation`.
IMO, I don't think the Canadian consciousness has missed this.
We shall see, what we shall see.
I have always believed that once we found our identity, we would find our place in the world.
scratch
Scratch, I respect you're opinions but why should we base our identity on failures in another country? Again we are looking outward to find something to make ourselves feel better. We have lots in Canada to make us proud without outside influences. Just look around, travel the land, speak to the people, get to know your neighbor, read your history books, dance a jig, milk a cow, sing a Bryan Adams song, curl, play road hockey, attend a social event, help a friend plow the back 40, sleep in an igloo, hike the Niagra Escarpment or the Gatineau Hills, drive the Cabot Trail, go whale watching, attend an Ann Murray concert, laugh at Don Cherry's suits, help a homeless person, visit the prairies. If you do a few of these things or any of a multitude of others you'll quickly find out where your identity lies.
Personally, there's not much I don't like about Canada, except perhaps the disparity between the different regions as Praxius pointed out.
Personally, there's not much I don't like about Canada, except perhaps the disparity between the different regions as Praxius pointed out.
And that's exactly what irks me. The US should have nothing to do with who we are. Rise or fall, it should have no bearing on our own identity. We have our place in the world. The world has a distinct view of us. But we're so busy worrying about other things, worrying about how we compare and measure up to the US, that most of our citizenry will never understand where our place in the world is.