Ontario Plans Referendum on Voting Reform

The Ontario government has announced legislation that will see a referendum on the recommendations of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on voting reform. This is a good thing, because the Assembly will likely recommend a system of Proportional Representation. There are a number of problems however.

First, the Assembly does not report until May 15 of 2007. This leaves less than five months to educate the people of Ontario on the option chosen by the Assembly. The BC experience shows that five months is not enough, especially if one of the more complicated PR systems is chosen, for example single transferable vote.

Second, an artificially high bar has been set for the success of the referendum. The government will require that 60% of voters province-wide, and 50% of voters in each of at least 60% of ridings, vote in favour of the referendum before it is considered passed. It is the height of hypocrisy that a government elected to a massive majority of seats with a total of less than 50% of the vote and won more than 50% of the vote in less than 60% of the ridings. By their own standard, they do not have a mandate to govern.

Taking these two issues together, this bill needs major tweaking. It is good that we are being given a chance to vote on our electoral system, but we need more time after the report is made. I would much prefer to see a special referendum vote on the issue, perhaps in the spring of 2008. This would mean there would be time to have a proper debate and to make sure that everyone is educated on the pros and cons of the proposed new system. There would also be time to take to implement the new system before the subsequent provincial election, presuming that the next Ontario government is not a minority that falls prematurely. The requirements for success of the referendum also need to be lowered. Much more realistic is a simple majority of province-wide votes along with a simple majority of voters in a simple majority of ridings.

At least the Ontario government is on the right track here, and I hope they are willing to tweak the law to take into account the concerns that I mentioned above.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 828

"Clean Air Act" Tabled

The Conservative "Clean Air Act" was tabled today. What a waste of space. On the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, easily the most important environmental issue facing Canada today and one of the most pressing issues period, the Conservatives have basically said wait 44 years and we might do something. The plan calls for emissions to be reduced 45%-65% below 2003 levels by 2050. By that time, I will be a senior citizen! This plan is a joke, but a joke in very bad taste. This is like telling a patient with a terminal heart condition that they face a 45 year wait for a transplant!

What we need to do is get started on reducing emissions now! If the government had the intestinal fortitude to face down powerful industries such as oil/gas, petrochemical and automotive, there would be a chance to do something. We simply do not have 44 years to wait.

All that the Conservatives have accomplished with this proposal is to shift responsibility. They know full well that they will not be in power when any of the deadlines come up. For shame on Harper and Ambrose.

As another factor of this, they claim that the programmes will harmonize with U.S. standards on such things as pollutant controls. So much for the made-in-Canada plan. As Gilles Duceppe put it, this is a written-in-Washington-and-Xeroxed-in-Canada plan. Harper should be ashamed of himself for so blatantly selling Canada and Candians down the river.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 834

Garth Turner booted from Conservative caucus

Garth Turner, the maverick MP from Ontario, has been given the boot from the Conservative caucus. He says that he will be sitting as an independent.

The Conservatives claim that Turner's booting came as a result of concerns that his blog was breaching caucus confidentiality. But what seems more likely is that he was booted for criticizing the leadership of his party, for example over the defection of David Emerson.

I will be very interested to see what Turner does over the next while. He has generally been seen as a red-Tory on social issues while being a fiscal conservative. In this regard he would seem to be a good fit for the Green Party. It would have profound political ramifications if Turner were to decide to sit as a member of the Greens. Such an action by Turner would provide much more impetus to the demands of the Green Party to be included in the televised leaders' debate.

Should be an interesting next few months.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 835

Stevie's Hypocrisy on Arrar File

So, Stevie Harper is going to send a diplomatic note to the US government demanding that they come clean on the Arrar affair. I would have more confidence in this if Stevie was actually willing to apologize to Arrar. Until the Government of Canada issues a formal apology to Arrar, this country is in no position to demand anything from the US.

The government must apologize, because what happened to Arrar is Canada's fault. The RCMP sent false information to the FBI, leading directly to Arrar's deportation and torture in Syria. Until Stevie is prepared to offer an unconditional apology on this, there is no reason to expect the US to do anything at all. Stevie has no moral authority on this issue. His Public Security minister, Stockwell Day, expressed a belief, while Arrar was in Syria, that Arrar was a terrorist and chastized the Liberals for "siding with" an al-Qaida terrorist.

For shame, Stevie. Put your own house in order before demanding that anyone else do the same with theirs.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 847

Another School Shooting

There has been another heart-wrenching school shooting. This one was at a tiny Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania. The man who attacked the school reportedly sent all of the boys outside before tying up all the girls and shooting them, execution-style, at close range. Three girls were killed, and seven other badly wounded girls were transported to nearby hospitals. The attacker killed himself.

This is a despicable crime on many levels. The killing of innocent people. The fact that the dead were children. The fact that the killer only wanted to kill girls. This is a sick and disgusting crime that should never have happened. I cannot comprehend what might drive a grown man to execute girls who had done nothing to him. This is only too reminiscent of the shootings in Colorado last month in which a grown man took six girls hostage, raped them and killed one of them. It is reminiscent as well of the killings of 14 women at l'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.

I don't know what can be done to stop these crimes, but we have to find some way to understand what could possibly have driven all of these killers to do what they did. There must be some way to stop this kind of thing from happening. I just wish I knew what that was.

In this case, banning guns would not have helped. The killer was armed with knives as well as guns and could just have easily used those weapons to carry out his crime.

My deepest sympathies and condolences go out to the families of the three girls killed, and my wishes for a quick recovery go out to those girls injured. The killings and attacks in the last month make it all the more important that every man do his bit to end violence by men against women and we should all do everything we can to aid the White Ribbon campaign coming up.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 851

Iggy Takes the Lead in LPC Delegate Selection

Ignatieff seems to have won about 30% of the elected delegates, with Rae, Kennedy and Dion finishing fairly close together, but significantly behind Iggy at about 19, 17 and 16 percent respectively.

These results will be modified by some ridings in Quebec that have allowed mail-in ballots, as well as the approximately 1500 ex officio delegates are not bound to vote for a particular candidate as the elected delegates are. But these results give a fairly good idea of how the first ballot results will look.

As an NDPer, Iggy is the person I would most like to face as LPC leader. As a Canadian, the best Candidate to have as Liberal leader and likely next PM is Dion, since he seems the most left-wing with some commitment to the environment.

Stevie must be scared of running against Iggy, because Iggy will poach many of the centre-right voters from the CPC. He will also drive a number of left-leaning LPC voters to the NDP because of how far right he is. This pattern could lead to another LPC minority government, and the NDP could pick up a number of very close seats, such as Kenora, Thunder Bay - Superior North, Beaches - East York, Dartmouth - Cole Harbour, Regina - Qu'appelle, Regina - Lumsden Lake - Centre, Saskatoon - Rosetown - Biggar, Yukon and some seats in BC. Obviously this is optimistic, but it is within the realm of possibility.

We shall have to see how the voting goes, and whether an obvious Anyone-But-Iggy candidate emerges.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 852