Dear Identicats:
Over the past year I've has less and less time to do my own things as political issues in Canada have been heating up. Since Identi.ca still doesn't federate with GNUsocial and I've not had time to set up shop on Friendica, yrs been hard finding time to make the trip here to post stuff (especially since it always takes me multiple tries to get the password to open the lock).
Canadian Politics 101
Canada uses a Westminsyer based winner-take-all "First Past The Post" electoral system, and over the years any checks and balances have been eroded to the point where we have next to none. When there is a majority government, as we have currently with the Harper Government, it's effectively a dictatorship. Because we have a multi-party winner-take-all system, its possible to win 100% of the poswer with less than 40% of the vote.
Our current majority has passed many dreadful laws, often bundled together in multi-hundred page omnibus bills that are rushed through parliament with little or no scrutiny. What little oversight the Office of the Inspector general applied to CSIS (our Five-Eyes partner) was dismantled via a single line in the 2011 omni-budget that had so many other dreadful things in it, no one really seems to have twigged to this, until after Mr. Snowden stepped up.
Most recently, in spite of masses of protests and petitions, both online and off, by Canadians from across the political spectrum-- including former Prime Ministers, the science community, the legal community and supreme court justices-- it passed Bill C-51, which effectively eviscerates our constitutionally protected civil rights found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
We need to make our supposed representative democracy actually representative, which we might manage by adopting one of the proportional systems that have been recommended over and over again for Canada. [Ten Canadian Commissions, Assemblies and Reports that have recommended proportional representation
http://campaign2015.fairvote.ca/reports/ ]
We do have two political parties -- both the Green Party AND our Official Opposition NDP -- pushing for this, and chances are good we will get it (unless of course the Harper Government manages a return engagement). I had intended to blog etc. in tandem with launching a #Pubslush crowdfunding campaign for my tantalizingly nearly finished second novel, but instead I will be marshalling what time and energy I have supporting my husband's campaign as the Green Party candidate for Kitchener-Conestoga. If you're interested in following Bob Jonkman's campaign:
website: http://bobjonkmangpc.jonkman.ca/blogs/
Jonkman Microblogs: http://sn.jonkman.ca/bobjonkmangpc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BobJonkmanGPC
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bobjonkman
g+: https://plus.google.com/113149114868831721017/
and even *gasp*
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobJonkmanGPC
Anyway, we're both still figuring out how to do this, so it's probable it may be a while before you see either of us in these parts.
Regards,
Laurel
Over the past year I've has less and less time to do my own things as political issues in Canada have been heating up. Since Identi.ca still doesn't federate with GNUsocial and I've not had time to set up shop on Friendica, yrs been hard finding time to make the trip here to post stuff (especially since it always takes me multiple tries to get the password to open the lock).
Canadian Politics 101
Canada uses a Westminsyer based winner-take-all "First Past The Post" electoral system, and over the years any checks and balances have been eroded to the point where we have next to none. When there is a majority government, as we have currently with the Harper Government, it's effectively a dictatorship. Because we have a multi-party winner-take-all system, its possible to win 100% of the poswer with less than 40% of the vote.
Our current majority has passed many dreadful laws, often bundled together in multi-hundred page omnibus bills that are rushed through parliament with little or no scrutiny. What little oversight the Office of the Inspector general applied to CSIS (our Five-Eyes partner) was dismantled via a single line in the 2011 omni-budget that had so many other dreadful things in it, no one really seems to have twigged to this, until after Mr. Snowden stepped up.
Most recently, in spite of masses of protests and petitions, both online and off, by Canadians from across the political spectrum-- including former Prime Ministers, the science community, the legal community and supreme court justices-- it passed Bill C-51, which effectively eviscerates our constitutionally protected civil rights found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
We need to make our supposed representative democracy actually representative, which we might manage by adopting one of the proportional systems that have been recommended over and over again for Canada. [Ten Canadian Commissions, Assemblies and Reports that have recommended proportional representation
http://campaign2015.fairvote.ca/reports/ ]
We do have two political parties -- both the Green Party AND our Official Opposition NDP -- pushing for this, and chances are good we will get it (unless of course the Harper Government manages a return engagement). I had intended to blog etc. in tandem with launching a #Pubslush crowdfunding campaign for my tantalizingly nearly finished second novel, but instead I will be marshalling what time and energy I have supporting my husband's campaign as the Green Party candidate for Kitchener-Conestoga. If you're interested in following Bob Jonkman's campaign:
website: http://bobjonkmangpc.jonkman.ca/blogs/
Jonkman Microblogs: http://sn.jonkman.ca/bobjonkmangpc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BobJonkmanGPC
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bobjonkman
g+: https://plus.google.com/113149114868831721017/
and even *gasp*
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobJonkmanGPC
Anyway, we're both still figuring out how to do this, so it's probable it may be a while before you see either of us in these parts.
Regards,
Laurel
Christopher Allan Webber, Evan Prodromou, Stephen Michael Kellat, William L. Anderson and 2 others likes this.
Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠), Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠), Stephen Michael Kellat shared this.
Thanks for the update. Good luck in your campaign! #sendingGoodvibrations from the pumpiverse :)
Laura Arjona Reina at 2015-08-08T19:59:48Z
laurelrusswurm, Christopher Allan Webber, Bob Jonkman likes this.
God luck, Laurel ... as a New Democrat I am committed to work for Noah Richler here in Toronto - St Paul's, and on more grounds than just PR. But Mr Albrecht is as vulnerable as any Conjob.
B. Ross Ashley at 2015-08-08T20:52:25Z
laurelrusswurm likes this.
This will be interesting. Good luck to Bob.
Stephen Michael Kellat at 2015-08-09T01:47:23Z
laurelrusswurm likes this.
Good luck to you, too, Ross. Although I've supported all the major parties at one time or another, the NDP is the one I've supported most. (The one time I argued in favor of strategic voting was when we lived in a place where the NDP actually had a shot and I discovered Bob was going to vote Green. That year we had both signs on our lawn :)
Although Bob is the smartest guy I know, it wasn't he who convinced me of the error of strategic voting, or even Scott Piatkowski's well made arguements... it was the time we were walking home from voting, complaining that neither of our votes would count, when our youngster (maybe in first grade) told us that since the people we vote for never get elected, maybe we would do better by voting for people we don't want, and then the people we do want might have a chance.
Although Bob is the smartest guy I know, it wasn't he who convinced me of the error of strategic voting, or even Scott Piatkowski's well made arguements... it was the time we were walking home from voting, complaining that neither of our votes would count, when our youngster (maybe in first grade) told us that since the people we vote for never get elected, maybe we would do better by voting for people we don't want, and then the people we do want might have a chance.