Howdy,
Just a couple of cool links i've discovered in the past week.
1) CBC Archives - Very cool site with radio and video clips from across the past 50 years. Politics, Sports, Arts, Culture, etc. Check it out! CBC Archives
2) The Living Room Candidate - On this website, you can check out US Presidential election TV commercials going back to 1952. Recommended for political junkies like myself!
3) The former memebers of BC's Citizen's Assembly have set up a website to promote their single transferable vote choice. Check it out...
The House of Commons is also back in session this week and I was listening to it today (background music, wow does Stephen Harper have an angellic voice or what?). During QP, one of the Conservative MP's (I think it may have been Edmonton Spruce Grove MP Rona Ambrose)brought up the dreaded "democratic deficit." The just of the question was that there are at least 16 vacancies in the Senate (3 in Alberta), and what is the PM going to do about it (hold elections or not?).
Now, I strongly believe that the Senate needs some pretty heavy reforming, I'm just not sold on what those reforms should look like. I don't think that electing our Senate under the flawed winner takes-all FPTP system would do anything to improve regional representation. Perhaps somekind of PR system, or STV? What do you think?
Back to the H of C question... one of the things i'm wondering - where do the Conservative Senators stand on this issue? Most of them were appointed by former PM Brian Mulroney. Would they run in a Senate election? Something they may have to think about if the PM ever decides to move on this issue.
More later...
D
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Dave,
ReplyDeleteThese blogs are great! I can't wait to steal a couple of hours and surf into your tapestry of links leading to a 'surfhaven' of intellectual stimulation! Sweet stuff!
Thanks!
Jen
Hey, Dave:
ReplyDeleteSenate reform, hey? Yes please. Votes should be province wide, and should use STV to fill whatever number of seats are available. Given that senators would be more likely to sit in cabinet, you'd have to hold their elections at the same time as the HoC. But we can't just throw an election in there and think it's fixed. The proportion of seats per province is wacky, and bigger provinces underrepresented won't stand for it. Electing them gives them the legitimacy to legislate, which people need to decide is OK before we go ahead, because we don't have a good method for resolving deadlocks right now.
Perhaps what we need is a National Citizen's Assembly on Constitutional Reform. Get 300 random people to write us a new constitution, and send it out to the provinces and feds for their approval.
You haven't seen democratic deficit 'til you've been to a "town hall" forum in Spruce Grove, toots!
ReplyDeleteFeature Story from Tuesday's Show.
Federal MP Rona Ambrose held a town hall meeting about same sex marriage in Spruce Grove and Neville Crawford attended. He wanted to express his support for same sex marriage. Mr. Crawford was shocked at the treatment he received when he spoke his mind. Ron spoke with him about his experience.
http://edmonton.cbc.ca/media/audio/edm-am/20050201Z_NEVILL.ram
Ah, thank you, thank you. I know that I have a great blog, but you guys make it all worth while! My fans! (insert 'gag' here).
ReplyDeleteJen - Enjoy my links!
Jason - I like the idea of STV for the Senate. I'm not sure a province-wide riding would be good though. In Ontario, all the Senators could be from Toronto (yuck! - sorry jen!). For Alberta, maybe we could have 3 Senators from north of Red Deer and three from south of Red Deer (if we keep 6 senators). I agree a good old fasioned Citizen's Assembly would be in order. I second that motion!
Holtopia (love that name!)- What an aweful story! I can't believe Rona just sat there! What a joke! (mind you, she's a pretty petite lady, she probably woulda been lynched by all of those scary people who support the CPC at the forum!) Shame on those people at the forum! Shame! Shame! Shame! (it's just like QP!)