Show Me The Seats

For me there is only one question, is Ontario being treated the same way as Alberta and B.C.? If they all get the number of seats they are due, because of population growth, good. If Ontario is declared "special" (read as "Let's screw Ontario") and gets fewer seats than is its due, I will be pissed, as will the vast majority in this province. Stephen Fletcher take note.

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Shorter Jack Layton

On Power and Politics today: "Gee, I wish we could make the Prime Minister turn over the documents to Parliament, but it's not like Parliament is supreme or anything. Maybe you guys in the media can do some digging for us." Pathetic. It makes me wonder what the Hell we were doing on January 23rd, protesting in support of a Parliament that won't lift a Goddamn finger to save itself.

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On The Other Hand

We can look forward to another Constitutional crisis in the new year, so all is not lost, yet.

Update: Conservatives to Parliament: Drop dead. So it begins. I rate the opposition's chances of winning in court at no better than 50/50. For Harper, this is a no lose proposition. If the courts rule against him, he raises millions for the party through mailings complaining about the courts. If he wins, he becomes the absolute monarch of Canada. The only losers here are Canadians, but there is always hockey.

Update 2: The other reason the Harperites are anxious to get this question before the court is so they can stand up in QP every day and say "We never comment on an issue before the court" whenever someone asks about detainees.

Update 3: I agree with Scott. Keep it out of the courts. Parliament has the power. Use it!

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Alert The Media

I actually agree with Ian Urquhart. The only laugh out loud moment in the piece came at the end, when Ian suddenly realizes the federal Liberals might just screw Ontario, too. By the way, I will have to look into how Jack and friends will vote on this issue.

Update: I don't know how I missed this but Coyne wrote a spot on piece about this, the other day.

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The Star Endorses PR (Sort Of)

At least the Star endorses enlarging the House of Commons according to the proportion of the population for each province. While I am happy the Star has come out in favor of a bigger House, I will be watching them very carefully in the coming months as we run up to the referendum on electoral reform, in Ontario. The proposed Ontario reform would see an expansion of Ontario MMP's to a level almost identical to the one the Star proposes for Ontario's share of the House of Commons. I will be very quick to point this out to the good people at the Star, should they trot out the "too many politicians" argument, in the future.

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I've Got A Rock That Keeps Tigers Away

I was watching Jay Hill on Question Period yesterday, and I was struck by the Tory's take on the chaos in Parliament. He tried to justify Tory tactics as a way to "push back" at a defacto coalition government created by the opposition. It struck me because, the underlying logic to that argument is pretty warped. It seems the Tories believe that although they have a minority of the seats in the House, they are entitled to have total control of the agenda, as some sort of divine right. There is no need to cooperate with other parties, because they are "the government". That is the "logic" of a "majority" government.

It is easy to understand why the Tories feel this way. In a FPTP system they know they are roughly 4 percentage points away from having absolute power. They know that with that amount of minority support from the country they can pretend they have a majority mandate, so why not pretend they have a majority with 36 percent? It is magical thinking, but it is promoted by the Alice In Wonderland electoral system we now have. However, if the Tories knew they were 14 percent away from having a majority, rather than 4, they would behave in a different way. They would be seeking partners rather than living in a dream world of their own creation.

We need to remove this enabler of fantasy from the playing field. We need to change the voting system so that the parties will need majority voter support in order to be a majority in the House. Otherwise, this kind of magical thinking will carry on and on into our future. Our politicians need a cure from "majority mania" and we need better politics.

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A Government of Liars

A note to those who would believe the government spin on the chaos now devouring parliament. Read Don Martin's column.

Update:Don Newman pointed out that the fact this leak probably came from a Tory committee chairman and was leaked to the National Post, is probably making the boys in the PMO pretty damn nervous. The backbench is getting sick of Psycho Steve and the Bully Boys. Good on 'em, I say. It shows that even Steve can't totally beat the humanity out of people.

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Ontario Screwed Again

I should have know it was too good to be true. I actually thought for a moment that this government was actually doing something for Ontario. Of course that was naive. This government's only concern is to contain Ontario and minimize its influence in confederation. This so-called representation by population reform is a sham, like everything else this government does.

The legislation is written in such a way that Quebec's ratio of voters to MPs becomes the benchmark. But any provinces larger than Quebec – Ontario is the only one – would not enjoy the full benefits. According to his government's numbers, in 2021 Ontario's share of the national population will hit 40.4 per cent while its share of seats will be 35.6 per cent, an under-representation of 4.8 per cent. The Ontario under-representation in 2011 is projected at 4.3 per cent. By contrast, the under-representation of B.C. and Alberta will disappear between those years.

The legislation is specifically designed to screw Ontario. It isn't about making the system fairer for Ontario, but to give other parts of the country their share of seats in the House due to them. That's fine and good, but to do that while still screwing Ontario is not going to win any points from the voters of Ontario. For the government to give all parts of this country representation by population except Ontario, is just one more insult to democracy and the people of this province, by a party that doesn't understand us and has no interest in giving us our fair say in the workings of the nation.

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