Food For Thought ...

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON DEMOCRACY AND REPRESENTATION


Fair Vote Canada noted that:
1. The NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but the voting systemgave the Bloc 50 seats, the NDP 37.
2. 940,000 voters supporting the Green Party sent no one to Parliament. Bycomparison, 813,000 Conservative voters in Alberta were able to elect 27 MPs.
3. Had the votes on October 14 been cast under a fair and proportional voting system, the seat allocation would have been approximately as follows:
Conservatives - 117 seats (not 143)
Liberals - 81 seats (not 76)
NDP - 57 seats (not 37)
Bloc - 28 seats (not 50)
Greens - 23 seats (not 0)

This election, only 59.1 percent - or 13.8 million out of 23.4 million - of eligible voters actually voted, a historic low in Canada.

"The price good people pay for their indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
Sad, a quotation well over 2000 years old that still bears truth today. Welcome to the "New World Order" of corporations and their puppet statesmen. It is true in Canada based on our latest election (yes Stephen Harper, I for one do find you a despicable toad of a man, a sick marionet that dangles on Big Business strings). We now wait to see if the surge of public interest and political involvement south of the border will bring sweeping change - or has the face of corporate power simply changed? We shall see. And please, let us use Mr. Obama's treatment of the Third World as our barometre. I for one shall save my excitement until he proves worthy of the task, and not before.