As we embark on yet another pointless exercise in electoral fraud, I want to get something off my chest. I want Elizabeth May included in the debates. Why? Because the more parties involved in this farce, the greater likelihood we will get a "majority" government with a ridiculously low percentage of the popular vote.
I want those Liberals who helped destroy Ontario's chance at getting PR and by so doing pushed the issue off the national radar, to squeal with pain should Harper win a majority with 34% of the vote. Because, make no mistake, if Harper does pull it off, he will run with it. He will rape this country. Then I want to hear the folks at the Star and the Liberal blogosphere talk about how we need the kind of stable government that only FPTP can deliver. Yes I am sure they will be quite effusive in their praise for a system that delivers a phony majority to Psycho Steve.
Now, it may not happen. Harper may let his mask slip long enough for the voters to see the pure evil inside. Dion may be an electoral genius. Layton may yet get his dream and toss the Liberals into the trash heap of history. But none of these things is likely. With four and five way splits inherent in our beloved voting system, anything can and will happen. So, bring on the clowns. Start the music. Let the games begin.
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Fester, it's back on the lithium for you.
ReplyDeleteYup
ReplyDeleteA bit over the top?
ReplyDelete"Electoral fraud"?
ReplyDeleteWhile I would not enjoy a Harper majority, I do share your sense of pleasure in seeing the Star's unwavering and unthinking support for our current undemocratic voting system lead to the destruction of the Canada the claim to stand for.
ReplyDelete"A bit over the top?"
ReplyDeleteNot at all, Fester. As Stephen Harper would say, it was a measured response.
Electoral Fraud?
ReplyDeleteSure. FPTP distorts voting intentions as more and more parties join the process. So, you will almost inevitably end up with a "majority" government with nowhere near a "majority" of the popular vote. Claiming majority status with minority support is false and a fraud, one that the elites in this country (especially the Liberal elites) are more than willing to go along with, since they have benefited from that fraud. Let's just see how willing they are to go along with the idea that someone has the absolute power that comes with a "majority" if that someone is Stephen Harper. My guess is they will squeal like stuck pigs.
Bad system, maybe. (I disagree.) But not fraud -- we've had this system for a long time, and people know quite well how it works.
ReplyDeleteNo one is being defrauded.
The essence of fraud is to sell someone something based on false promises. In this case it is "majority government". This is a terrible fraud because it is selling the idea that somehow we are electing a "majority government" when that is not in fact what we are doing. We are electing a minority government with majority power. Liberals have gone along with this fiction for years because they have been the chief beneficiaries of it. We will see how they react should Harper get a majority in the mid thirties. I think it will be most amusing.
ReplyDeleteWill people cast their votes in the hope of being as amused as you claim you'll be, Fester? Your posting registers less amusement than bellicose outrage. The liberals have taken on the kind of damage that comes of being in power for so long, though the tories have managed to call their own credibility into question in pretty short order (and in an amazingly systematic way--it's almost as if they've been ticking items off a list!). But hoping Canada goes to hell in a handbasket because it hasn't adopted the voting system you prefer sounds the kind of angry schadenfreude Stephen Harper could appreciate.
ReplyDeletePeople voted against electoral reform.
ReplyDeletePeople voted against electoral reform.
ReplyDeleteYes they did Ben. I was there. I also know who was backing the no forces and let's just say, they all wore red ties.
Ace, I suspect people will cast their votes for a variety of reasons, from tribal loyalty to idealistic altruism. As for going to Hell, well Ontario went to Hell for a number of years and most of us (though not all) survived, a little bit sadder and a little bit wiser. Maybe a time in Hell will do us all a little good.
And blue ones too, to be fair.
ReplyDeleteNo orange ones or green ones, of course.