Fair Voting

From Fairvote.ca

As usual, the first-past-the-post system played havoc with voters’ intentions. The Green Party, western Liberals, the NDP and urban Conservatives were among the political victims. The Parliament voters tried to create would have looked quite different from what the voting system gave us

Results from last week’s election:

• The Green Party had 940,000 voters and sent no one to Parliament (813,000 Conservative voters in Alberta alone were able to elect 27 MPs)
• In the prairies, Conservatives received double the vote of the Liberals and NDP, but took 7x as many seats
• 250,000 Conservative voters in Toronto elected no one
• The NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but the Bloc attained 50 seats, the NDP only 37

Here’s what the results would have been if we had a proportionally representational voting system:

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)

Larry Gordon, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada, explains how dumping first-past-the-post and adopting a proportional representational system would increase democratic representation: “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.”

Harper Flips Democracy the Bird: Greenpeace

Greenpeace campaigners are arrested for holding a banner that reads “Kyoto Plus Now” at a Harper event. The campaigners make some great points at 3 minutes into the video. An important video to watch to understand Harper’s views on democracy, free speech, the environment. 

I was thoroughly creeped out by the zombie-like chant conservatives gave to worship their leader “…Harper, Harper, Harper, Harper…” etc.  At first glimpse of campaigner David Martin on the ground, I assumed the members of this undead (conservative) community had tackled him in order to feast on the only worthy brains left in the vicinity.  

I can imagine future Conservative rallies: 

“What do we want?”

“Brains!”

“When do we want them?”

“Brains!”

Confessing my Girl Crush on AEM

One totally cool lady, Anne Elizabeth Moore, has written ‘Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity’.

It’s an anti corporate manifesto that will rock your world.

To elaborate on my last post, must quote AEM:

As marketing strives to burrow deeper into our social networks and bypass our reason entirely, our ability to locate and uphold personal integrity- factor that must precede a demand for democracy- is being challenged.

Other Women Love AEM Too: Pam Anderson proves she is not only hotter than you, but also much cooler by reading Unmarketable by the beach