quit reading this and
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
… I know I have.
Posts Tagged ‘vote’
gotta say yes to MMP
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007I saw my first anti-MMP flyer today (a postcard from nommp.ca, which appears to be run by a trainspotter from Guelph) and it surprised me that there could be such virulent opposition to what is basically a good idea. MMP, or its local variant, has worked very well in Scotland. So I’m going to vote for MMP.
When the Scottish Parliament got going late last century, it had a proportional representation system from the start. It did allow some minority parties in - like the Scottish Greens and the Socialists - but in doing so more fairly represented the wishes of the Scottish people.
True, there were some unusual antics in the house at first from some of the Socialist members, but I notice that they are no longer represented. Act like a jerk, nobody votes for you again - that’s democracy.
I’m not sure about the rise of the Nats, and the Greens are hanging on by one member, but it seems to work, and ends the “3 years of doing the opposite + 1 year of campaigning” to which majority rule seems to devolve.
but at least I didn’t jump up and down like Reese did in “Election”
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007Last night at the banquet and annual awards ceremony, I was elected onto the board of directors of The Canadian Wind Energy Association (L’Association canadienne de l’énergie éolienne). The other new directors are:
- Gary Pundsack of Invenergy
- Bill Smith of Siemens
- Larry Jacobs of NRG Systems
I’d like to thank everyone who helped me, and look forward to a busy three years on the board.
your vote counts - or does it?
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007I was a little bemused about Ontario wanting 21 extra MPs, so I did some sums to see how many MPs each province/territory should have:
| 2005 Population | ‘Fair’ Ridings | Actual Ridings | %age over/under represented | |
| Canada (total) | 32,270,500 | 308 | 308 | |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 516,000 | 5 | 7 | +42% |
| Prince Edward Island | 138,100 | 1 | 4 | +203% |
| Nova Scotia | 937,900 | 9 | 11 | +23% |
| New Brunswick | 752,000 | 7 | 10 | +39% |
| Quebec | 7,598,100 | 73 | 75 | +3% |
| Ontario | 12,541,400 | 120 | 106 | -11% |
| Manitoba | 1,177,600 | 11 | 14 | +25% |
| Saskatchewan | 994,100 | 9 | 14 | +48% |
| Alberta | 3,256,800 | 31 | 28 | -10% |
| British Columbia | 4,254,500 | 41 | 36 | -11% |
| Yukon Territory | 31,000 | 0 | 1 | +238% |
| Northwest Territories | 43,000 | 0 | 1 | +144% |
| Nunavut | 30,000 | 0 | 1 | +249% |
The population data is from StatsCan for 2005, and the riding counts from Wikipedia, and checked on CBC’s election 2006 site. My analysis is a bit simplistic; everyone counted as population gets the same federal representation.
Ontario, BC and Alberta are getting stiffed. Quebec is the fairest of them all. But if you really want your vote to count, and you can’t handle the Territories, move to PEI.