test blog #10

The chickens have voted for Colonel Sanders again. It's an old, old story, and we seem farther away than ever from changing the ending. Doug Ford is destroying Ontario in a way Mike Harris only dreamed of. Healthcare, schools, libraries, parks, public transit -- all programs, all supports, and countless jobs are under the ax. Jason Kenney will expand the petrostate and destroy whatever gains have been made in renewable resource development, when he's not busy destroying public education and healthcare. Both men are skillful, deceitful manipulators. Neither are to be trusted. Yet hundreds of thousands voted for them. And while it's true that an NDP government will never be as good as advertised, there is a clear distinction between what's on offer from both parties. And more people chose right-wing over left-leaning. And yes, Alberta has been restored to its more typical conservative government, but last time out, these same voters chose the NDP. And Ontario? Don't s...

Will you sign a declaration to make Canada more democratic? Declaration of Voters' Rights And some myth-busting about proportional representation: A ranked ballot is not a voting system. How will anything get done? Is proportional representation constitutional? Read and share!

Need it even be said? The rightward shift of the NDP is a colossal disappointment for me. I'm part of the NDP's natural constituency. The NDP has historically been a social democrat party, a party of the working class, a party not tied to corporate interests. The existence of the NDP, a credible, viable party on the left, is part of what made Canada such an appealing choice for me. Despite the right-leaning leadership of the NDP at both the provincial and federal levels, I still have hope for Canada. Every NDP voter I speak to, and everything I read, tells me that my disappointment is shared and echoed throughout the land. There is still hope that the NDP will reconstitute itself as a party on the left. But not if we dutifully vote for them no matter what platform they put forth. When 34 prominent NDP supporters wrote to Andrea Horwath to express their disappointment , we got a glimpse of the NDP's future. They collapse at the polls, Horwath is turfed, and party is re-forme...

Like many Canadian activists, I am currently being bombarded with emails from Leadnow and Avaaz , pushing their "Cooperate for Canada" campaign. We are being urged to join the political party of our choice, then to encourage the parties to "cooperate" in the next election, in order to defeat the Conservatives. This would supposedly be a one-time deal, after which the parties would work together for meaningful electoral reform. I'm keeping an open mind, but I'm highly skeptical. The Leadnow FAQ claims this is not strategic voting (which actually works in very few ridings), not a merger, and not a step towards a two-party system. I am skeptical about each of those claims. I fear that "cooperation" is a slippery slope, and at the bottom lies an even more broken system with fewer choices. There's something else very wrong with this picture: the Liberal Party. Stories about the "cooperation" idea, such as this one in the Vancouver Sun , ...

There's an excellent new democratic voting tool designed to show us what the upcoming Ontario election would look like under different voting systems. Although we can reconfigure actual election results using different electoral systems, those "what might have been" scenarios are never fully accurate, as people might vote differently under a different system. Strategic voting, for example, might not feel necessary to many voters. On the other hand, the pitfall here is that people who favour FPTP may not use this tool. Still, it's a useful exercise and the results may be enlightening. Three Ontario Votes allows you to vote in the upcoming Ontario election under three different systems: first past the post, proportional representation, and the alternative vote. There's information about each system, descriptions of the voting system in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, and a short questionnaire. If you live in Ontario, please visit Ontario Three Votes . Vote t...

Canadian readers, if you have not already done so, I hope you will send a message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper through this excellent campaign by Leadnow . A clear majority of Canadians voted for change. 9 million voters cast their ballots for parties that share much in common. 9 million voted to strengthen our democracy, protect our environment and increase our equality. Yet, because these parties split the vote in riding after riding, Prime Minister Harper has gained near total control of our government with the support of less than 6 million voters. The only thing that can check his power is the shared voices of Canadians like you. Right now, we need to send Prime Minister Harper a clear message that although he has a majority of seats, he does not enjoy majority support. In his acceptance speech, he said “…we must be the government of all Canadians, including those who did not vote for us.” We expect him to follow through with this commitment, and we will be here, growing stron...

I'm starting to think that in order to have fair elections, we not only have to ban all paid political advertising - an obvious improvement I've been running on about for years - but we must ban political polling too. Maybe as soon as the writ drops, all pollsters should a mandatory six-week vacation. They could work privately for the parties and whoever else commissions them, but they would be embargoed from releasing results to media, and parties would be similarly prohibited. If we are concerned with the integrity of elections, this daily barrage of poll numbers has got to stop. This country is insane for polls. We are constantly bombarded with the percentage of Canadians who have done this, haven't done that, bought something, ate something, thought about buying something, thought about trying something... it never ends. But daily polling during an election campaign is not only annoying and unnecessary. It's potentially damaging to democracy. In a perfect world, vo...

This was originally supposed to appear at The Mark, as part of a series called "Who Owns Canada?" I ran into a few editorial snags, so I'm posting it here instead. The Mark asked for short pieces answering the question, "Who Owns Canada? Which person, organization, or idea wields more influence than any other?" Here's my answer. * * * * When The Mark asked "Who owns Canada?" I immediately considered the question in reverse: "Who doesn't own Canada?" The answer: Canadians. A democracy should reflect the will of the people, but current Canadian policy reflects only the will of the Conservative government and its supporters. A majority of Canadians did not vote for Stephen Harper's Conservatives. Yet we are held hostage to his anti-democratic agenda because he has so successfully exploited an antiquated, first-past-the-post electoral system and a pitifully weak opposition. The majority of Canadians do not support the war in Afghani...

New York, my home state, is one step closer to equality . British Columbia is not .

Tomorrow, people in British Columbia have an historic opportunity to expand their democracy. For all the info, see BC-STV: Single Transferable Vote . Ontario voters didn't move things forward when they had the chance in 2007, likely confused and misled by the entrenched interests who want to maintain the status quo. You out there on the west coast, show us how it's done! Power Up Your Vote! .

This is making the rounds through the Canadian blogosphere, and worth reading: Canada cannot be both a parliamentary and a populist democracy. Parliamentary Democracy In Crisis , an explosive new book analyzing December's constitutional showdown, written by 15 of Canada's leading parliamentary experts, says Canada must bridge its two largely irreconcilable democratic cultures or face an uncertain future. Canada's two solitudes are no longer Quebec and English Canada. Today, the two solitudes are Historic Canada and The West. Polls taken during the crisis found that Historic Canada -- Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes -- backed parliamentary democracy and the Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the Bloc Quebecois. Under parliamentary democracy, the government of the day must win and maintain the confidence of a majority of the members of parliament to retain power. The West overwhelmingly supported the populist outcome -- a two-month prorogation allowing the minority Conserva...

Our furnace was shut down because of carbon monoxide danger, our dogwalker quit with no notice, Allan is sick and I'm a bundle of fibromyalgia symptoms. But who cares? All we want to do is watch CPAC all day. Did you watch Question Period today? "Separatist coalition... proud to be democratically elected... sponsorship scandal..." Yes, they're still bringing up the sponsorship scandal. What else ya got? "Separatist coalition" is hilarious. The way the Bloc is bad-mouthed drives me to their defence. My Canada includes Quebec, but it includes democracy and tolerance, too. Many of the Liberals were excellent, especially John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood). Several NDPers highlighted what Parliament would look like if we had proportional representation, which was great to hear. We hit the mute button for the stacks of emails Conservative MPs are receiving - but it does show us the value of sending them. Keep those calls and letters coming, folks. I'm also gl...

Wow! Is this really happening? Did I actually see the words "negotiations for a coalition government" in a news story?? I have to laugh at how out of the news loop I've been. We were very busy with family and friends, and only seeing stories the New York Times considers front-page. You can be sure Harper's tottering Government wasn't one of them! We had internet access at both my mom's and my brother's houses, but when I'm having a great time with people I see only once a year, I figure the news can wait a few days. After all, it's probably the same old thing. Yesterday, after driving for ten hours on very little sleep, I had no intentions of spending any time online. But imagine my surprise when I was blind-copied on emails to both the NDP and the Liberals about their negotiations for a coalition government! I ran downstairs to shout the news to Allan: the Harper Government is teetering on the brink, had to execute an about-face to survive, and i...

In addition to the analysis from Fair Vote Canada (which I hope you will read), I received this from a key Campaigner. Thank you! + + + + PUTTING THIS FEDERAL ELECTION IN PERSPECTIVE: 2008 Voter Turnout: 59.1% of registered electors (or about 41% of all Canadians) - one of the lowest in recent history Total Conservative vote percentage: 2006 - 36.3% 2008 - 37.6% - A 1.3% increase after governing moderately for 2 years - From 127 to 143 seats (gained 16 seats) Percentage of Canadians who did not vote for Harper's Conservatives: 62.4% (that's right, 62% of Canadians - who voted!) Times Stephen Harper has attempted to get a majority and failed: Three times (in 2004, 2006, and 2008) Harper's MAJOR advantages in September 2008: - Dion as leader; perceived as weak, unable to communicate - divided, indebted Liberal Party - early triggering of election before U.S. election and possible recession (Harper broke his own fixed date election law) - well financed corporate party with b...

This morning's email from Fair Vote Canada. (Emphasis mine.) 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. [Note: The following commentary is based on returns at 2am ET.] 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 th...

You know who Joe Hill was, right? He was a worker, a labour activist, a Wobblie . In 1915, he was framed for a murder, and sentenced to death. His last words were to the firing squad: "Fire!" But Hill's most famous words were written in a letter to his fellow activist, the IWW leader Bill Haywood . Hill said: "Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize." Those trenchant words are usually shortened even further: "Don't mourn. Organize!" They have echoed through people's movements ever since. And that's what we have to do. We have to recommit ourselves to keeping Canada Canada. The majority of Canadians did not vote for the Conservatives, and as the majority, we have to make our voice heard. We have to oppose their policies and their legislation, and urge the Opposition to live up to its name. And we have to work for proportional representation . I'm thinking that as progressives, that's where our main fight should be. While I...

As if I weren't nervous enough about this election, the Red Sox play a crucial playoff game tonight. If we can get CBC without the cable box, we can set up two TVs next to each other, put them both on mute, and watch the game and election returns at the same time. We'll find out shortly if this is possible. This whole election thing is so scary. If Canada had proportional representation , we could know that the will of the people was reflected in the House of Commons. As it stands now, it all depends on who lives where. That's no way to run a democracy. * * * * Update. It doesn't work. No TV without a cable box. So we'll put the game on a laptop and election returns on TV.

Imagine what Canada could do with 18 billion dollars . What would you do for the country with $18 billion? Buy some stocks ? Meanwhile, all the Harper Conservatives can do is ridicule Stéphane Dion's hearing loss . I am hoping Canadians will be smarter - and kinder - than that. If all you have to offer is a dig at another man's physical disability - which doesn't affect his intelligence, his ideas or his integrity - you are not fit for public office. * * * * Readers are bombarding me with links about strategic voting and proportional representation. They've all been mentioned here, either in posts or in comments, and I'm sure most wmtc readers in Canada have seen them, here and elsewhere. The folks at Orphan Voters are now bordering on spam. Even in the service of democracy, it's bad blogging. Here you go: Vote For Environment Pair Vote And of course, why strategic voting shouldn't be necessary: Fair Vote Canada , which sponsors Orphan Voters .

From the good folks at Fair Vote Canada: Open letter from Fair Vote Canada to strategic voters and vote-swappers "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein Another federal election and another disaster for democracy. On October 14, millions of Canadians – possibly eight million – will become orphan voters , casting ballots that send no one to Ottawa. As usual, the election results will be wildly distorted. Some parties will get a portion of seats far exceeding their portion of the popular vote, while others will get too little or none at all. We may even see a party opposed by six voters in every ten take majority control in the House of Commons. Why we call this exercise "democracy" is a continuing mystery. During every election in recent memory the frustration created by an undemocratic electoral system leads some to conclude that voters should try to "game" the system. Instead of marking the ball...

Nicholas at Life Without Borders has the answer .