This evening, a friend linked me to a post on Jason Hanley’s excellent blog. A graduate of both the University of Waterloo and of Wilfrid Laurier University, Hanley wrote this post regarding the results of the Canadian federal election a couple of weeks ago.
As Ontario voters will know, during the last provincial election, we held a referendum to decide whether or not to replace the existing first past the post voting system that exists in Ontario. Unfortunately, the process was poorly advertised, the question was horribly worded, the conditions for the referendum to pass were too strict, and at the time of the election, most people didn’t understand the issues enough to affect a change to our current system.
The following chart, taken from Hanley’s post, clearly shows the need for a new electoral system in Canada:
Canadian Federal Election Results 2008
The implications of these election results are clearly summarized into a number of alarming points:
Only 58% of Canadians actually voted
The number of seats received by each party versus the number of seats deserved by each party according to a proportional (fair) voting system is wildly skewed
In particular, the Green party received no seats at all, while the Bloc Quebecois received a ridiculously disproportionate 16% of all seats.
It seems clear to me that our system is beyond broken. Of all the democratic countries in the world, only Britain, the United States, and Ourselves continue to use this outdated electorate model. Besides the non-proportional results that our system gives, its other problems can be easily summarized:
In order to get elected, parties have to maintain not only a strong support base, but one with a small geographic distribution. This means that parties like the Greens, who received 21% of popular support cannot get a single seat, because they don’t have enough voters in any single riding to win.
In theory, the system is designed for a election with only two parties, as in the United States. In that case, the winner of each riding needs 50% +1 popular votes to win, and a clear majority results in every election. However, with 4 parties in a riding, the number to win drops to 25% +1, meaning that the vast number of votes are essentially unrecognized, and minority governments are common.
Because of their clustered geographic support, the Bloc Quebecois (a separatist party running in a federal election with no representatives outside of the province of Quebec) regularily win the majority of seats in Quebec, and hold a strong presence in the house due to the high population density in that province. This is nothing short of an absurdity, as they do not represent the wishes of any Canadian not born and raised within Quebec.
Although there are no studies (that I’ve seen) to support this conjecture, I would hazard a guess that the vast number of Canadians didn’t bother to vote because they saw no clear leader in any of the election preceedings. The entire thing was marginally successful power grab by Stephen Harpers’ government, at a time when the Liberal party was perceived to be too weak to prevent an easy majority win by the Conservatives.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this ‘democracy’ that we live in is merely a sham. If you prefer not to look behind the curtain, continue as you were and allow your ‘government’ to dictate to you how they will run your country. But if you’d rather to wag the tail, head over to fairvote.ca to learn more about the possibilities of electoral reform in Canada, and why it is desperately needed.
I leave you with one of the best skits that the members of the Royal Canadian Air Farce have created in many moons.
With the Canadian Federal Election less than a week away, I figure it’s important to bring a refreshing view to the campaigns of our various candidates. This video was aired on the Rick Mercer Report a couple weeks ago, and is worth a watch:
Speaking of Elections, the latest Lispop projections (As of October 8th) are giving Stephan Harper’s Conservatives 138/308 seats in the House, which is roughly 45% – A Solid Minority Government, which is great for hippies like me.
To switch elections for just a moment, Rolling Stone Magazine published two excellent articles this month regarding John McCain, and Sarah Palin. Keep in mind that they’re a tad biased, and a definite example of the much rumoured “Liberal Media,” but fantastic reading nonetheless. Biting, entertaining, and unapologetically honest, these are articles that traditional news outlets would be afraid to run.
First, a couple clips for reference of Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric:
Second, Tina Fey once again lambasting Palin on Saturday Night Live:
It honestly appears as though Sarah Palin has absolutely nothing to say about any issue in this election. Her responses to questions are canned, scripted, and rehearsed, repeated back verbatim as if she is reading from a Conservative Q&A pamphlet.
Ever seen an interview with an NHL hockey player between periods? “Yeah, well we’re all giving 110%, trying real hard out there, we’re in this together, really playing as a team, doing what we have to do to win the game.” Nothing. Of. Substance.
I’ll have to side with Matt Damon on this one – I dearly hope that this woman does not get within 200 feet of the White House.
With the October 14th Canadian federal election quickly approaching, I think it’s a good time to bring forth an important issue that isn’t getting enough spotlight in our media.
Anybody who is tech-oriented or reads the news should be familiar with the American DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). Put into law in October of 1998, the law works to strengthen copyright protection in the USA, and includes an anti-circumvention clause that makes it illegal to break any digital security system placed on your files. This law applies to any kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) system placed on your otherwise legitimately purchased digital property.
Under the DMCA, it is illegal to convert Apple iTunes downloads to the more open Mp3 format, rip DVD movies to your computer to watch them on a network, a portable device, or otherwise back them up, rip certain CD’s (the ones that have copy protection warnings all over them) so that you can listen to them on your iPod, and a whole host of other should-be legitimate activities.
In the past, copyright law was only broken if you took somebody else’s work and illegally distributed it to others via the internet, a CD-R, or USB thumbdrive. With the DMCA in place however, it is illegal to do all sorts previously legal activities that fall under the realm of fair use of a product legitimately purchased.
Which brings me to my point – previous to taking their summer recess, Stephen Harper’s minority conservative government was once again attempting to champion bill C-61 through the House of Commons in an effort to put a similar law into effect here in Canada. Most experts in the United States argue that their DMCA has actually hindered the tech sector there, while security experts cringe at the idea of being legally bound to not test the security of various systems, including electronic election equipment (on which maker Diebold has handily installed DRM so that it is illegal to check over their source code).
As a tech-oriented citizen entrepreneur in Canada, I feel that this law needs to be struck down immediately. Details regarding the law can be found here, while information about how to help defeat the proposal can be found at boingboing, copyrightforcanadians, this youtube video from Canadian law proffessor Michael Geist, and this segment of CBC’s the Hour, also featuring Michael Geist.
For those seeking more information regarding DRM, the DMCA, and the effect both have had on tech and liberty in the USA, check out this essay (*.pdf) that I wrote last term for an Ethics course I took at Laurier. It’s about 16 pages, but a solid read, and full of links to other important resources.
Contact your local MP, and get their opinion on the law as part of your voting research.
On this week’s SlightlySauced, Dana, Dave, Jake, Jon, and Kayla discuss crazy cat people and the pets that they’re crazy about. We start off with an article from Slate Magazine that shines a light on animal rescue agencies, followed by a discussion of our own experiences adopting and owning pets. It’s a hilarious show, so check it out! Download:Direct Link L […]
Jon
The primary contributor to and maintainer of the site
Steph
My girlfriend, who sometimes posts her writings
Downloads
Charles Darwin
An essay that I wrote about Charles Darwin’s contributions to Science and Society for a history class at WLU
DRM Essay
An essay that I wrote for an Ethics class I took at Laurier that examines DRM, the USA DMCA, and the failures of both as security against piracy
iTunes Playlist Exporter
Exports all of the songs in any iTunes playlist file to any location on your computer. Originally written to load a blackberry or other mp3 player with music.
MAX 3D Engine
A not quite finished 3D engine written in C++ and OpenGL for my CP411 computer graphics course.
Ted Rogers
A paper that I wrote about Ted Rogers’ personal and business pursuits for a history class at WLU
The Battle of the Atlantic
An essay exploring the lessons learned by both sides during the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. The essay explores the military and industrial capabilities of the combatants, the technology behind the Enigma and Allied code breaking efforts at Bletchley P
Tile-Based Map Editor
Written in VB for my top-down XNA rpg, allows easy creation of 2D tile-based maps, and exports to both a PNG pallete and an XML map description. Use it or modify it as you see fit.
Bus Error
Jake Billo’s excellent weblog, always good for a laugh or some handy info.
Matthew Good Online
The excellent (although sometimes jaded) blog of Canadian musician Matthew Good.
MusikPolice @ Last.fm
My profile over at Last.fm, one of the few social networking sites that I use.
The Linux Experiment
Seven Windows users with varying levels of Linux experience attempt to run it various distributions on their primary computers for four months. Hilarity ensues.
TylerBurton.ca
The blog of fellow computer enthusiast Tyler Burton, who uses it primarily as a showcase of software he’s written.
