The Politics of Fear – both Harper AND Dion are to blame
From Fair Vote Canada: The Politics of Fear is Misleading and Polarizing. Which of You Will Change the Sad Face of Canadian Politics? Dear Mr. Harper and Mr. Dion: On behalf of all Canadians who want to believe in democracy, allow me to express my enormous frustration with this election campaign. The leaders of our two largest political parties are acting more like fear mongers than true leaders. Stephane Dion, you say Canadians must vote for the Liberal Party, or Stephen Harper, with a phony majority government, will ruin Canada as we know it. Stephen Harper, you say Canadians must vote for the Conservative Party, or Stephane Dion as head of a phony majority Liberal government will ruin Canada as we know it. Is Canada truly in such terrible danger, or are both of you simply avoiding the core question that any Canadian would ask: 'Why should a leader and party without true majority voter support be allowed to seize command of Parliament and impose law and policy on all Canadians?' Why is it that you defend and perpetuate a system of election and government which lacks the legitimacy conferred by majority voter support? What do you say to the nearly eight million orphan voters in this country - more than half the active electorate, many of whom support your own parties - who on October 14 will again cast votes which elect nobody to the House of Commons? To Conservative voters who will elect hardly any representatives in urban centres and to Liberal voters who will elect no one in the prairie provinces? Which of you on October 1 and 2 will say to the cameras that before the next election you will bring in proportional representation, making all Canadian voters equal citizens with equal votes and equal representation in the House of Commons, thus ending the need for fear and hate campaigns designed to gain that slight advantage in the popular vote that will result in a phony, underserved majority of seats in Parliament? Canadians would be delighted to hear you pledge that your government will make this the last unfair and undemocratic federal election. Any leader who makes that pledge would be deserving of the votes from millions of currently orphaned voters on October 14. Yours for a democratic Canada, Barbara Odenwald, President Fair Vote Canada www.Fairvote.ca and www.orphanvoters.ca Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a national multi-partisan citizens' campaignto promote voting system reform. FVC was founded in 2001 and has a National Advisory Board of distinguished Canadians from all points on the political spectrum.
Ottawa, Ontario
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Squid-dude – I absolutely do agree with you. Unfortunately, the two of us don’t hold the power to change this unfair system (damn).
But I figure that if folks like us and organizations like Fair Vote Canada keep hammering away at the issue, then maybe something will change in our lifetimes…
I’m pretty sure this is a topic on which you and I agree strongly. The Canadian electoral system is a perverse mockery of democracy in its current form.
Back when there were, realistically, only 2 parties, FPtP made sense – just like it does in the USA right now. But those days are long gone.
Canadians, however, are pretty stupid when it comes to this. Look at the electorate of Ontario which bought into all the misinformation and shot down their opportunity to have proportional representation at the provincial level. And the usual cry? “whah it’s too hard”