Canada Desperately Needs Proportional Representation

Dearest Canadians,
I know many of us are quite saddened by the Canadian Election process which is severely outdated. Here's an interesting piece that I found posted yesterday.

"Was the federal election just a bad dream? After five weeks of fearand loathing, disappointment and disbelief, Canadians woke up to election results that were hardly different than when the election started. Most of the commentary since has been about numbers and pro-Harper media spin. The man who is claiming a new "enhanced" mandate actually received 168,737 fewer votes than last time but garnered anadditional 19 seats. The turnout, at 59 per cent, was the lowest in our history, which means that the Harper Conservatives will govern the country with the support of fewer than 23 per cent of the eligible voters. Democracy in Canada has seldom seemed so corrupted or so unrepresentative."

I encourage you to check out www.fairvote.ca
-SIGN the PETITION for movement to a proportional representation
an affiliate of fairvote, orphanvoters.ca is also worth a look too.

BC will have the next referendum on proportional representation inMay 2009. Three years ago the BC vote gained 58% but missed the 60%mark needed to enact the change into law. We can elect a leading government with 37.6% of the popular vote, but we need to a 60% vote to make the system more democractic.

Motivation is the only way to change this. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell the Tim Horton's teller, whoever they vote for, we can all vote for this.

Canadian Election Call. Harper's not so level playing field.

To kick off the end to summer vacation, Stephen Harper and the Conservative government announced today that Canadians will be heading back to the polling stations on October 14th, 2008. The third election in Canada in 4 years.

Harper's election call comes in striking contrast to his previous election stance and the legislation he supported fixing our election dates (our next election was supposed to October 19, 2009).

"Fixed election dates prevent governments from calling snap elections for short-term political advantage. They level the playing field for all parties and the rules are clear for everybody."
But fixed election dates stop leaders from trying to manipulate the calendar simply for partisan political advantage." Stephen Harper May 26, 2006

It feels good to set rules that even the playing field, now why doesn't Harper want to play by his own rules?