The probability of pro-family, pro-life views to be heard in Ontario has become much higher yesterday, as a report from the Citizens Assembly, an independent group of citizens, has recommended a new electoral system for Ontario.
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The Family Coalition Party ran 76 candidates and achieved over five percent of the popular vote in 1990, when people were hopeful that a party based on Christian moral principles could elect representatives, but its hopes were greatly reduced after that election, when people realized that with the current electoral system it would be very difficult to elect even one representative in Parliament.
Actually, I still am in favour, mostly because it gives these guys a chance at representation, but its important to understand that PR has the potential to make the Ontario Legislature more "diverse" in all sorts of unexpected ways.
h/t to Her Who Must Be Obeyed!
Meanwhile SoCon bloggers are still flogging their youtube videos as proof the crowd at this year's March For Life exceeded the paltry few dozen reported in the mainstream press. News to the SoCons: doesn't matter if you video the same fat guy nine times from different angles, they still only count as one person.
PS. Am off to Ottawa for the long weekend, so there probably won't be much in the way of writing. Does anyone know what the exchange rate is, and do they speak English in Ottawa?
PPS. And good used bookstores. Are there any in Ottawa?
13 comments:
Whooee! Sounds like this here Giuseppi feller's bearin' false witness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_general_election%2C_1990
The FCP ran 68 candidates and got 2.7% of the popular vote.
In most PR systems, there's 5% threshold for representation. I ain't sure what the ON group's proposal sez.
Somebuddy's bearin' false witness on the numbers at the 2007 MFL. CBC sez 1500, RCMP sez 3500, Lifesite.net sez 7000. Tough choice between them 3 icons of honesty.
I useta go to quite a few anti Vietnam war marches. The discrepancy between reported figures was a common theme. Unverifiable accusations of disinformation campaigns were rife then as now.
JB
Jimbobby,
3% in Ontario
Absolute best book store in Ottawa (in my humble opinion) is Octopus Books on Bank Street in the Gleeb. You can also try Book Bazzar which is also on Bank (on the corner of Gladstone, I believe).
On the PR front, even if these crazies get seats under a new PR system that may not be the end of the world. As soon as you put a microphone in front of them long enough, they're going to say something bad and it may just shift the entire remaining field of political parties and partisan supporters away from them.
Nice to see that you've decided who should be allowed to be represented in government.
3% is lower than other places where they have MMP - I think Germany is 5%. I'm okay with 3%. If the FCP or any "fringe" party can garner that number, good for them.
In 2003, the FCP got only 0.8%. The Greens got 2.8%. Giuseppi's probbly right that formerly disenchanted voters will come back to fringe parties if they see their vote counting. I reckon that'll help the Greenies, too, an' we don't need much help.
Anonymous said...
"Nice to see that you've decided who should be allowed to be represented in government."
I ain't sure what he means. The voters oughta be decidin' who's representin' 'em. Is anybuddy sayin' different?
JB
We'd all be much better off under Sharia.
Whooee! Sounds like this here Giuseppi feller's bearin' false witness.
You mean a fundy lied again? I'm shocked...SHOCKED!...I tell you.
I've always supported proportional representation for exactly this reason; bring the angry ideologues into the democratic process and have them understand clearly the civil democracy that protects them as well as the rest of us.
There has to be limits on the % required for representation in the legislature though, but still...putting these loonies up front and on record is the best thing for democracy.
And I agree with ti-guy and JimBob, with the number of representation they get, it will be hard for them to get any of their 'priorities' through without working cooperatively.
You want the GREEN party to get ANY representation? You're fawked!
Off to Ottawa for the weekend? Will you be battling the Conservative Menace in person? Will it be just yourself, or will you be getting help from the CBC, the MSM, the Senate, the Supreme Court, every federal bureaucracy, and most of the newspaper editors in Canada? It must be an uphill fight.
Shorter anony-twit: "Help, help...I'm being oppressed!"
"PR has the potential to make the Ontario Legislature more "diverse" in all sorts of unexpected ways."
Certainly Minister John Gerretsen sees this. When he was first elected in 1995, he was the only Liberal MPP between Toronto and Ottawa, although Liberal voters were 31% of the voters that year. The PCs were only 45%, yet our winner-take-all system let them sweep many such parts of Ontario so they elected 63% of the MPPs.
No wonder Gerretsen supports the Citizens' choice of MMP. And democracy cuts both ways. As he says, he's advocated for electoral change since being elected because it would force governments to compromise more with other parties in order to pass legislation.
"Nobody is ever 100-per-cent right and nobody is every 100-per-cent wrong," he said. "Governing is the art of compromise. There's nothing wrong with having the governing party take into account smaller parties."
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