Thanks to prime minister Stephen Harper, we are facing not just the drudgery of yet another election, but international scorn too. “At a time when Arabs risk life and limb for political freedoms, Canadians seem largely apathetic about the erosion of their democracy,” wrote Ramesh Thakur in The Australian. He went on to say “the extent to which constitutional conventions, parliamentary etiquette and civil institutions of good governance have been worn away in Canada is cause for concern.”
Maybe taking to the streets is the answer. After all, last election in the federal riding of Halifax, we did everything we’re supposed to do to voice our displeasure. We barely voted for Harper’s Conservative candidate. We sent a talented, articulate advocate, Megan Leslie, to be our representative in Ottawa. Leslie turned out to be such a strong voice in opposition that the other members of Parliament named her the Rookie MP of the Year. And so what? Harper rolls on.
However, as much as our system sucks, Nick Fillmore isn’t ready to give up on it. Sure, he is realistic about apathy: “Everybody just says, ‘I don’t think my vote is going to do what I want it to do,'” is how he puts it when we talk over the phone. But Fillmore is the type of person who gets involved rather than turned off.
Originally from Kentville, in 1969 he started Halifax’s fondly remembered crusading newspaper The 4th Estate, then worked twentysomething years as a CBC journalist. Now Toronto-based, he spends a lot of time in developing countries teaching journalists and otherwise encouraging a free, strong press. And in this country, he helps run Catch 22, an organization devoted to free, strong democracy.
Catch 22 (find it online at catch22campaign.ca) takes its name from the 22 days Harper shut down Parliament last year in order to make an embarrassing inquiry disappear. C22 is registered with Elections Canada as a legally recognized third party participant, and has launched a campaign explicitly aiming to defeat Harper’s Conservatives for “undermining democracy” chief among other reasons.
The key Catch 22 strategy is to target about 20 ridings the Conservatives narrowly won in 2008, and stump for the anyone-but-Conservative candidate with the best chance of winning: organizing a C22 committee in the riding, getting volunteers handing out flyers at campaign events, buying a little advertising. All the old-school grassroots political moves, brought up to date with online visibility (TwitFace and the like).
If you’re thinking about donating to Catch 22, Fillmore stresses that, except for one student hired to do bookkeeping, C22 is volunteer-run, so your money will be spent getting the message out rather than on office workers’ salaries. Your donation is also going to the pro-democracy cause, not a particular party. “We’re not going to hand money over to campaigns,” says Fillmore.
In this way it differs from Swing 33, another strategic voting initiative that popped up for the election. Swing 33’s site (swing33.ca) endorses a non-Conservative in 33 ridings, with a link straight to each candidate’s donation page if you want to get involved.
But whether you give to Catch 22 or to a promising candidate, either way is really strategic donating, not strategic voting. And buying your way into political influence is hardly in keeping with the ideal of a free democracy. Fillmore gets the catch-22 here, and sees the Anyone But Conservative donation effort as a step on the way to fixing Canada’s democratic process.
“The longer-term answer that will encourage people to vote more is to adopt some kind of proportional representation,” says Fillmore. In other words, if a party gets seven percent of the total vote, as the Green Party did last election, they get seven percent of the seats in Parliament. (The Conservatives won 47 percent of the seats with 38 percent of the vote. The Greens didn’t get any seats.)
Most first-world democracies use some form of proportional representation, Fillmore points out, and people seem to like it because every vote truly matters. He believes Canada’s voter turnout rate—currently under 60 percent and in decline —would rise as high as 80 percent with proportional representation. But since p.r. can open the door to smaller parties, “big parties in power don’t encourage it.” Of course, the big parties don’t encourage strategic donations, either. But for now, that’s the best tool we’ve got.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.
Somehow these Coast Harper cartoons seem even worse than attack ads.
So exactly what has Megan Leslie done for Halifax? What new projects or money? Exactly what was in the budget that was so bad? And one man’s contempt for parliament is another’s contempt for opposition. Just because you’re opposition doesn’t mean you are any more right than the government.
What a sucker Kyle Shaw is.
Fell for the trick column in ‘The Australian’ …written by a Canadian professor Ramesh Thakur, annoyed after being turfed from Waterloo.
Never mind Kyle , CTV fell for the same story and presented it as ‘international’ opinion on the Don Martin political show.
As for Megan Leslie, I think people would have more respect for her if she came out and said she supports of opposes the convention centre deal.
I agree with Bro Tim, WTF has Megan done? SO much hooplah about her winning and squat it seems. Though not much better in my riding with Regan, haven’t seen him do anything. His flyer only talks about shaking seniors’ hands…
I have to laugh at the cartoons that regularly portray Harper as some type of jackbooted thug. Leftists always lampoon conservatives as totalitarians (or totalitarian wannabees), while ignoring the fact that the mass murderers of the last century (Stalin,Hitler, Mao, etc.) were socialists/communists.
This scumbag wants to have mandatory minimum sentences for people growing 6 pot plants. Seriously, these prohibitionists are as ignorant as people that banned women and blacks from voting back in the day in Canada and the US.
“This scumbag wants to have mandatory minimum sentences for people growing 6 pot plants. Seriously, these prohibitionists are as ignorant as people that banned women and blacks from voting back in the day in Canada and the US.”
If five plants yield an average of an ounce of usable product each, and 30-120 joints can be made with each ounce, five plants would give you 150-600 joints.
Unless I’m WAY off on this (off the cuff) calculation, more than that sounds like you’d be getting into dealing territory. Really, how much pot do you actually need for your own use?
“I have to laugh at the cartoons that regularly portray Harper as some type of jackbooted thug. Leftists always lampoon conservatives as totalitarians (or totalitarian wannabees), while ignoring the fact that the mass murderers of the last century (Stalin,Hitler, Mao, etc.) were socialists/communists.”
I’m half convinced that they do it for provocation only. Either that, or the Coast writers live in a complete fantasy land–which is a distinct possibility.
The next time someone decries conservatives or right-wingers in general as fascists or Nazis, ask them how much they know about Hitler’s well known radical anti-statist policies. Fun will ensue.
“The next time someone decries conservatives or right-wingers in general as fascists or Nazis, ask them how much they know about Hitler’s well known radical anti-statist policies. Fun will ensue.”
Alright, you go here and watch: torontog20exposed.ca and tell me all about how its nothing like the early days of nazi germany.
If you’re smoking three joints a day, that’s going to be 150 a month. If plants take 6 months to mature (I have no idea how accurate this figure is), that means that, at a minimum, you need to have 6 plants growing in order to get a steady harvest.
Also, consider that since some plants don’t grow well, you need to have more growing more than you need: at least twice as many in order to help guarantee your steady harvest. During the seedling phase, you’d probably need to have at least 10 “plants” growing in order to get a few decent adults. I don’t think the law makes any distinction between seedlings and adult plants. Furthermore: if I understand marijuana cultivation correctly, you need to wait a while before you can sex the plants in order to cull the budless males, so that would again double the number.
Of course, it’s not a big deal if you have to go dry for a while.. unless you’re using it for medical treatment.
Whoops, I meant 5 joints a day.. not unheard of for someone using marijuana as treatment for pain or loss of appetite.
Buck, believe it or not but some people look beyond those simplistic labels to the ACTUAL ISSUE AT HAND. Incredible! The Conservative Party of Canada is NOT fiscally conservative. If the average voter is as uninformed or stubbornly single-minded as some of the dunces commenting here…jebus help us.
@ innadiated
If we lived under a facist regime then why are you comments not being cersored? or Why is the Website not being filtered out by the Government. Wow! Nazi Germany not even close
Wow! another reason to vote for the Conservative Party or the Liberals. Its clear Socialist want to take our freedom away.
I wonder why every one of the Coast artlice sounds like it came off rabble.ca? since all the links can be founded on their website. I find it interesting they even support dictator like Muammar Gaddafi since they are supporting him murdering his own people.
To protect are freedom vote for the Liberal Party or the Conservatives. The Socialists just want to take our freedom away and turn us into Libya or Eastern Europe under communism.
“If we lived under a facist regime then why are you comments not being cersored? or Why is the Website not being filtered out by the Government.”
-Yes, let’s wait until our gov’t BECOMES a facist regime before we actually worry about anything. How silly for some of us to think the illegal arrests, beatings and detention of protestors, and Harper’s numerous attempts to control and silence the media or anyone who might disagree with him are something to be concerned about and that we might want to send a message with our vote that it’s not acceptable.
Also, who the hell said anything about supporting Gaddafi? Comparing left-leaning politics in Canada to the regime in Libya comes awfully close to the sensationalistic portrayal of Harper as a Nazi – both comparisons are ridiculous and patently offensive.
I posted most of this in a Bruce Wark article already, but figure it applies.
That said,
I don’t like Stephen Harper.
I’m not a big fan of the Conservatives either, especially lately.
I’m voting Conservative in the election as a lesser of 3 evils situation.
Problem with voting, especially with folks as young as me, is that people like to pick one issue out of a bunch that they like (be it military spending or post secondary education or which one looks nicest), and not consider the whole spectrum. Looking beyond what you necessarily would benefit most from, and what everyone would benefit most from is difficult for a lot of people. It’s a matter of picking the best option on paper, rather then by emotion.
You can’t vote Green party: Because they’re a bunch of useless eco-nuts. They don’t even have an economic platform, it’s basically, “screw the oil sands we need to save the trees… for the children!” I’m always glad that they don’t win seats because it’s just such a waste of a vote, and really, not nearly enough people vote right now to afford waste.
You can’t vote NDP: Because they’re a bunch of union pandering shrills who’ll do anything to get into power, playing the, “we have the moral highground from the other parties,” card. I won’t lie, I’m still a little bitter about the NDP majority in Nova Scotia. Here I am telling my peers, “They’re promising expanding social programs and not raising taxes. They’re claiming they’ll balance the budget without seeing the budget. They’re claiming they’ll pull more doctors out of their butts, they can’t do any of those things please don’t vote for them because none of those things will happen and we’re going to get screwed,” who then go on to win and renege on every major campaign promise. What a surprise when I read up on the NDP candidate we elected, Megan Leslie, to see she’s done jack all for Nova Scotian interests. Then again, I might be a bit harsh on federal politicians.
You can’t vote Liberal: Because the liberals entire campaign strategy is, “we’re not Stephen Harper!” That’s not a real campaign strategy. Hell they even want the airplanes they’re complaining so much about, just less expensive ones they’re oddly unspecific about because ANY reasonably new plane is going to cost millions. So much for the coalition too, not even a week after the government fell Iggy is at the throat of the NDP, and they returned the favor. Is that supposed to demonstrate his leadership abilities? If we don’t have a Conservative majority the coalition will absolutely fall apart and we’ll have another election in short order.
Again, Harpers not a wonderful cuddly fella like you see in his sweater-vest commercials, but you have to admit, he got shit done. Canada came out on top of the recession better off then just about every other first world country. Canada NEEDS to upgrade it’s military, especially the air force, we still use goddamn sea kings ffs. Hell buy new helicopters before airplanes, buy both, our military is terribly underfunded. Canada NEEDS the oil sands in production, we’re a primary resource country, that’s how we make our money, we sell oil and gas and ore and everything to other countries for silly prices so they can make nice things for us.
Canada NEEDS someone like Stephen Harper, because the bottom line is that morally ambiguous shit happens every frigging day in politics, and of the three choices (f the green party, f my generation for thinking it’s cool to vote for them), he’s the person I trust most to keep Canadas interests at the forefront, and not go out of his way to screw us.
(although personally, his treatment of the media is absolutely wrong and slightly terrifying, but not wrong enough by itself to justify a vote for the other parties)
– D
I agree with Nick Fillmore’s suggestion that a system of proportional representation would help reduce voter apathy and encourage more people to vote. A system of proportional representation would also more accurately reflect the political makeup of the country.
The Greens received 937,613 votes (6.8% of the total) in the last federal election which translated into zero seats in the House of Commons.
In comparison, the Bloc Quebecois received 1,379,991 votes (10.0 % of the total) which translated into 49 seats in the House of Commons.
http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/result…
Clearly there is something seriously wrong with the current “first past the post” system.
I don’t see such a system being implemented any time soon because the parties which benefit the most from the current system likely wouldn’t support a change. However, I think it is a change whose time has come.
The Coast’s Pilsworth caricatures are often offensive and this is no different. There is a fine line between satire and abuse and he often seems to cross that line.
As for the column itself, it is just more of the typical Coast left-wing rabble-rousing. Let’s give Harper a majority and watch them implode.
There are drawbacks as well as benefits to proportional representation (PR).
(1) Party-list variations of PR (which are the majority of PR setups) give party executives even more power, since there is a central ranked list of candidates whose ordering is determined by them.
(2) A party list PR system would also limit regional and local representation, given that candidates in the peripheral parts of the country would likely have less influence in their parties compared to those from more central areas.
(3) Extremist and single-issue parties may also be elected, and could yield decisive influence in certain electoral scenarios–say a government needing a few more M.P.s on side to pass the budget.
(4) The constant compromises required for governing coalitions to function under PR could be a real impediment to reform. A party that stands alone in a majority government is far more likely to be able to plow ahead with changes to the current system. In fact, I think that is the primary reason why the Conservatives have not been particularly fiscally conservative during their time as a minority government–they have to make concessions to the left wing parties to survive, and that basically means greater spending.
Now, perhaps a mixed system would be more workable…
Maguido ( Apr 8,2011) for prime minister!
His comments are pure common sense!
With apologies to Joyce Kilmer:
I think that I shall never see
A Liberal, with integrity
Its hungry mouth obscenely pressed
Against the public’s money chest
A Liberal that seeks to slay
Common sense in every way
And rise from mediocrity.
A liberal, that in Commons weaves
Deceit, like packs of common thieves.
In whose bosum lies leave a stain
Who inwardly can feel no shame
Promises are made by fools like Iggy
Then breaks them all, it is no biggy!