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Debate

Love_Young

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pinklady said:
I agree, its usually a case of picking the best of a bad bunch, the lesser of the evils.

Love_Young, you are from the US right?
How would you feel about Donald Trump running for President?
It really is and it is a shame.

Why yes, I am from the US. Hmm..not sure I feel too crazy about it but as hubby did say, he seems to know how to manage money which would greatly help our economy. However, it frightens me that he could just be really over dramatic. I mean the guy really loves the attention, how do we know this one isn't just another factor in getting attention scheme. But I won't say anything until I give all of them a fair shot and listen before poll time. What would be your thoughts on him running your country pinklady? :p

I know this is the Canadian side but in case another American comes across this, does anyone know if you can vote while outside the country? I would hate to miss another election.
 

pinklady

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I dont know about voting in US from canada, but I know I can participate in UK elections. You have to register well in advance though. I don't know the exact details, just know its possible!

I must say, I like donald trump. I like his no nonsense attitude and honestly yeah I think he'd do a good job of managing the country. I would give him a shot at running my country! He doesnt mess around and he states the facts. That's what I like about him.
I am going to be staying at his hotel next week :)
 

ufa

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Just wanted to remind people here that you don't get to vote for Prime Minister... just your member of parliament. I know i don't need to give everyone a lesson in Canadian Politics, but my point is, if you want your vote to actually count towards something, i think you need to look at your individual riding - determine who the top two candidates are, and then choose the lesser of the two evils (or three evils if its a three way race) :)

This page, http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/, was developed for the purpose of avoiding a Harper Majority but it could also be useful to anyone still on the fence - just to see where the polls stand and where their votes might actually make a difference.

Still won't make a difference for most people where the ridings are run-away wins for certain parties - such as my riding which is a shoo-in for the NDP and so no matter who i vote for won't really affect the formation of the government (I'm still going to vote since it affects who much funding the parties get... and to have my 'useless' vote at least part of the statistics that may one day help support a revamping of the election process).

Argh, I hate this system.

Maybe you can tell I'm anti-Harper... but how couldn't you be when he's cut so much funding for immigration services in Ontario, and especially for his patronizing stance yesterday. argh.
 

Love_Young

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Very true pinklady, I will give it a shot. And have fun staying at his hotel. Lol.

ufa, I actually didn't know you couldn't vote for Prime Minister, that is very upsetting.
Where could I go to learn more about the way Canadian politics run? I would love to learn more.
I think I am more on the NDP side of things but that is just myself. However, looking at that site it seems most of my area in Canada are as well. At least I am not alone. I really don't like the idea that Conservative and Liberal are the top two parties. Give others a chance.
 

AmandaHsu

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ufa

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Love_young:

During the Federal elections, you vote for your member of parliament (MP) who represents your district / riding in the government. The MPs are usually members of a national party (there are some 'independents' or some who are members of small more localized parties). The party with the most MPs forms the government - their leader becomes the prime-minister, and he designates the members of cabinet. A possible exception to this is if the party has the most MPs does not have more than 50% of the MPs. In this case, the opposing parties could combine to form their own government. One would assume in this case the cabinet would be formed by a combination of MPs. More likely, the government is still formed with the party with the most MPs and is referred to as a 'minority government'. Ideally, in a minority government the parties are forced collaborate on ideas and proceed with government duties with a true mixed representation of the public values, it has worked well in other countries. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, this has not been the case, but instead the Harper Conservatives have not shown any openness to collaboration, and the opposition has been too nervous to use the power that they could have had. It's been a mess.

I still hold out hope for minority governments though as I think they have the potential to best represent the varied public opinions.

The electoral reform I was hinting at was moving away from the 'first-past-the-post' system that is in place in Canada whereby a candidate wins an election even without 50% of the vote. This is in addition to the fact that there may be a minority government. The minority government could in fact be formed by candidates who only got say 34% of the votes in their riding (or even just 21% if we assume 5 equally supported parties!).

I'm going to give you a pretty far-fetched example just to illustrate the problems with the first-past-the-post system: Making a bunch of improbable assumptions and assuming just 3 parties nation wide, a government could be formed by a party who has 104 of the 308 seats (MPs). That's 32.5%. Then assume that each of those MPs only receive 34% of the vote, and none of this party's members received any votes in any district they didn't win (remember i said i was being a little improbable)... that means said government would actually only represent about 11% of the voting public! Yes, completely improbable, and somewhat unrealistic, but it's a (far-fetched) possibility with the current system (and goes down to 4.3% if you consider 5 nearly equally supported parties). I am completely guilty of fear-mongering in this case only to illustrate my distaste for the system - which I normally deplore... so i'll go back to reality for a bit: We do have a government that only 37.7% of the voters supported (and that was with only a 58.8% turnout at the polls in 2008) http://www.elections.ca/scripts/OVR2008/default.html.

So, you do indirectly vote for the prime-minister, but my point was more about the lost impact of the votes of a majority of the Canadian voting public.

STILL VOTE THOUGH! The only way to change the system will be to have the statistics to support the need for a change! And also, if you have a favorite party that is unlikely to win in your riding, the funding they receive from elections Canada is somewhat dependent on the actual number of votes they receive.

I'm sorry if this turned into a bit of a rant on my part. I just wish my vote would actually count for 1/24,000,000 instead of 0.
 

AmandaHsu

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pinklady said:
I dont know about voting in US from canada, but I know I can participate in UK elections. You have to register well in advance though. I don't know the exact details, just know its possible!

I must say, I like donald trump. I like his no nonsense attitude and honestly yeah I think he'd do a good job of managing the country. I would give him a shot at running my country! He doesnt mess around and he states the facts. That's what I like about him.
I am going to be staying at his hotel next week :)
I can't say anything better than you.....yes, I like Donald Trump, too. I'm wondering what would happen if Donald Trump managed Canada.... ;D