Fun Videos with a Cause

Hey, just found these cool videos and posters about STV made by the fantastically artistic people at the Emily Carr institute.  They’re a lot of fun and get the point across in a different way from more straightforward descriptions.  They are also looking for other video producers to add their ideas to the collection so if you get a new camera for Christmas, be sure to share your new BC-STV featurette.  Take  a look and let us know which are your favourite in the comments on this page.  Some of these are funny enough to send or show to friends and family when they ask how it works or why its important to vote for STV.

http://www.stviscatchingon.com/

http://www.stvmakesyouhappy.com

For a bit more meat on your videos here are some others, which are also fun, made by the people at the STV campaign

http://www.stv.ca/videos

An explosion of petitions!

I love petitions, its a direct way for people to voice a strong concern about an issue and its an easy thing for them to do.  Its not always clear they are effective, but when a politician is faced with definitive proof that hundreds of thousands of people care about an issue their instinct is not to ignore it.

FaceBook FairVote Group reopened!

Last week the people at FairVote Canada made a change to the way their FaceBook group worked as we discussed in a recent post.  The idea was to keep the group under 5000 so they could continue to send out messages.  Well, there was a lot of discussion about that on the group and they listened

Fair Vote group is now full – please direct friends to Fair Vote Canada – 2

This from Larry Gordon of Fair Vote Canada.  I estimate that about .1% of Canadian voters on Facebook are now members of the Fair Vote Canada Facebook group.  It seems that the strategic voting discussion and the recent coalition discussions/debate have raised an unprecedented degree of interest in fairer voting systems!

Due to fabulous growth in the past few weeks, the original Fair Vote Canada Facebook group is now full (just under 5,000 members). We have closed the group, because if we exceed 5,000 we lose the ability to send email to the group. So yesterday we launched a new parallel Facebook group: Fair Vote Canada – 2: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51004532864

We will post the same news, updates and events, and the same email content for members of both groups. If you are referring friends to join us on Facebook — and please do!– please send them to Fair Vote Canada – 2.

Thanks – and we’ll be sending along a link for the online survey results later today. We had more than 2,000 responses!

By: Bruce Krayenhoff

Andrew Coyne on Proportional Representation

I highly recommend this excellent blog post by Andrew Coyne, which discusses how under proportional representation the differences would be far greater than people voting the same and getting a fair seat count (with the Bloc seat share substantially reduced), and a different coalition as a result.
Under proportional representation people would vote differently (recall all the strategic voting initiatives last election), and voters would have more choice (The Progressive Conservative and Reform parties would still exist). With the hope of a false majority extinguished, any party that wished to be included in the ruling majority coalition government would moderate their policies sufficiently to make them broadly acceptable, and definitely wouldn’t be bringing forward confrontational/controversial legislation for a confidence vote! This would results in government that is more stable and centrist, yet responsive to a diversity of voter interests.
So yes, we would probably have a coalition, but politics and the coalition would likely be very different!

Read the story here:

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/12/10/different-electoral-system-different-coalition/

By: Bruce Krayenhoff

Now is the time for a discussion on democratic reform

I need a rest, maybe even a “cooling off period” to recover from all the political intrigue of the past week. Not that parliament necessarily needs a break, at such a pivotal time, but I sure do.  Rarely have constitutional issues and parliamentary maneoveres raised so much interest with the Canadian public.  People are engaged, whether because they are upset, angry, confused or excited.  Hardly anyone is bored by it.  For now it seems to have settled down, whether for good or ill.  One good thing that should arise from all this excitement, however, is that Canadians are more aware than ever of the inner workings of our democracy. Furthermore, regardless of where you stand on this particular coalition, Harper’s behavior, Dion’s leadership, or any of the other issues, almost everyone would agree that something is broken with democratic system.

It is time for  national discussion on democratic reform.  Never before have Canadians been soon interested and so upset at how the system works.  This is the opportunity, with the STV referendum coming up, to discuss ways to fix our system.  Canadians want to know that their voice is heard and that decisions are being made in a transparent manner.

So lets start that discussion now. It’s easy. Here, I’ll start.

Some may blame the recent fracas in Ottawa on politicians and their crass, greedy, conniving ways.  But really, contrary to some reports,  politicians are people too.  The problem, I think is that the system we use to govern ourselves have very strange incentives built into it.  It has incentives for prime ministers to shut down government to avoid being voted out of his job. It has incentives for opposition parties to make any compromise just for the hope of forming a more representative government.  If the members of parliament elected only two months ago actually represented the votes cast nationally then a coalition of opposition parties would look very different.  See Larry Gordon’s letter to see the break down of what the party numbers could have been.

While we do that, the parties will realign themselves, the Liberals have already chosen a new leader, the Quebec election is over even with historically low turnout and eventually parliament will sit again.  Parties are playing political games and voters are still tuning out.  Do you agree? Disagree? Think I’m crazy. Let me know.

Assuming you agree, and I will assume that until you tell me otherwise, what’s a responsible citizen to do?

Get involved.  Join groups (fairvote, stv, fairvoteubc ), join the discussion (twitter, or comment on this blog! any others? let us know! ), writer letters (some hints), talk to people!

Mark Crowley is a PhD student in Computer Science at UBC

The sound of one democratic hand clapping

Coalition government? Yes, but it’s not the one we deserve

After 141 years is Canada finally, albeit accidentally, on the path to modern representative democracy? Don’t pop the champagne cork yet. We still have a way to go, but the law of unintended consequences may be at work in Ottawa.

Why not?

Regardless of what happens in Ottawa in the next week regarding the the impending conversion of the Conserative minority to a Liberal-NDP coalition one thing is clear.  This will be a great moment to have a national discussion about minority governments