Elections

San Francisco Proposing To Let ILLEGAL Aliens Vote

Mulder

I would say this is the most insane, ridiculous concept that has come out of the San Francisco in a long time.

But what do you expect from the city that has declared itself a sanctuary city for illegal aliens? Or the city that shuttles illegal drug lords around to bypass federal authorities.

At least they look to be backtracking on the sanctuary city now that they are entering the national fingerprinting program.

What I am thinking is that this is quite the example of bringing the mountain to Mohammed. All these illegal aliens lining up to register themselves to vote and get their names (and addresses) on a list. How convenient!!

A LA CARTE!! A LA CARTE!! A LA CARTE!!

Mulder

Across the nation our local TV networks have been waging a war against the cable carriers, and Rogers in particular. The battle has basically been over Rogers taking the free air signals of local TV stations and broadcasting them over cable without compensating the local stations.

Well it looks like Rogers is going to up their rates by 1.5% in an effort to compensate for additional costs of carrying these free stations and people are EM AY DEE … MAD!

I blogged about our lack of priorities a few weeks ago but the bottom line is that EVERYONE should be raising their dander up and demanding A La Carte station ordering. i.e. There should be a base cost (say $10 or $15 a month) for delivery of service and then we should be able to order whatever channels we want. Why should an anglophone Canadian pay for 3 or 4 French stations to be piped directly into his home? Why should a good God fearing Christian need to pay for stations that promote Muslim or Jewish religious beliefs? Why should a piano lesson taking uber geek be forced to pay for not one, not two, but three sports stations that he/she will never watch? It simply does not make sense.

The only thing that DOES make sense is A La Carte station ordering. If I had to pay $2 or so per station, I would likely have a $40 to $50 a month cable bill.

Demand A La Carte!

Making The Bloc Irrelevant

Mulder

When I blogged about altering the party funding formula a couple of weeks ago, I garnered a bit of interest but not quite the wave I would have liked to see. Well it seems that I am not the only one who feels that regional parties should be marginalized.

U of T Professor Andrew Stark had a piece in the Globe and Mail today that is worth reading which also addressed regional parties like the Bloc Quebecois.

Of note, their is a Bill passing through the system now that would give Ontario and a few Western Provinces more seats while holding Quebec to 75. This would go a long way towards taking away some of the strength that the Bloc have but ultimately party funding is the way I think this issue needs to be addressed.

Animal House Of Commons – Will We Be Voting This Summer?

Mulder

The simple answer to this question is no.

Despite all the saber rattling the bottom line is that:

a) The Bloc Quebecois doesn’t want to lose seats to the Liberals and right now that’s what would happen.

b) The NDP doesn’t have the money to fight an election and they would definitely lose seats.

c) The Liberals don’t have the money and wouldn’t dare call an election before infrastructure money gets spent.

So this weekend Michael Ignatieff is going to relax, have a cognac while he intellectually debates with hawks like Warren Kinsella and in the end, the conversation will go something like the one between Greg Marmalard and Dean Wormer in the movie Animal House.

Liberal Hawk: But the Tories are already on probation.

Michael Ignatieff: They are? Well, as of this moment, they’re on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION!

A Little Bird Told Me…

Mulder

Everyone asks me if we are going to have an election. I think it has to do with my interest in politics. And to every person I answer the same way. I tell them to go ask Stephane Dion since it is the Liberals who will decide whether to prop up the Tory government via the old “Sit and Spin”. i.e. they sit on the hands when the bell tolls and they spin the stories to the press hoping to swing the polls….

Well tonight I had the luxury of sitting in some choice seats at the hockey game featuring the Leafs vs. the Senators. (Yeah!! My Leafs kicked butt 5-0). And not two rows back and two or three seats over is sitting Steve MacKinnon, the past president of the Liberal Party and someone who regularly appears on the Mike Duffy Live show doing much of the aforementioned spinning.

So at the first intermission, I turn and yell out “Hey Steve!”

He looks around until he spots who is calling him and I ask “Are we going to an Election soon?”

In a friendly manner, he replies “I don’t think so. What do you think?”

I tell him I don’t think so either and I let him go back to eating his hot dog with his two friends.

So there ya have it. Someone far closer to the fray saying he doesn’t think we will be having a spring election not 24 hours before the budget comes down.

Steve MacKinnon eating a hot dog at a Leavs vs Sens game
(That’s him on the left in the brown leather bomber jacket)

Liberals "In and Out" Of Hypocrisy … But Mostly In

Mulder

After weeks of pummeling the Conservatives in Question Period alleging election fraud, the Liberal hypocrisy on the issue is exposed. When a motion in the house affairs committee is brought forward to expose the practices of all parties for the last two elections, they turn tail and run, preventing quorum and, thus, acceptance of the motion.

Why???

Click the above video once to view. If it does not begin playing shortly, you can try clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRZjXGYaDAQ

Mixed Member Proportional Strikes Out With Me

Mulder

Italy uses a Mixed Member Proportional system and from what I can see, they have one of the most Officially Screwed electoral system in the world.

They have over 40 political parties (Strike 1) of which the majority are tied in to two coalitions.

But because the Italian system incorporates a 4% minimum in order to garner some of the assigned proportionality seats, the coalition with the most votes is not the party forming the government because they have more parties with less than 4% of the vote in their coalition. (Strike 2)

Strike 3 is attributed to the fact that an MMP system will let every small interest group form a party in an effort to garner 4% of the vote and get a representative in the assembly. The proposed system for Ontario would only require 3% making it that much more fringe party friendly. Here is a brief list of some of the party names.

Daisy-Democracy is Freedom Party
Rose in the Fist Party
Italian Radicals
Party of Italian Communists
S.O.S. Italy Party

In reading a few of the other names, I would imagine that it wouldn’t be long before we had political parties dedicated to core unions such as:

“The Teachers Union Party”

or

“The United Auto Workers Party”. (I would give you one guess at who would lead this one.)

Then we have New Zealand. This country had a two party system from 1909 to 1996 when they moved to a proportional system. What would Ontario have to look forward to with an MMP system?

New Zealand has a strong party system in place. The first political party was founded in 1891, and its main rival was founded in 1909 — from that point until a change of electoral system in 1996, New Zealand had a two-party system in place. Today, New Zealand has a genuinely multi-party system, with eight parties currently represented in Parliament. Neither of the two largest parties have been able to govern without support from other groups since 1996, meaning that coalition government is required.

The two largest, and oldest, parties are the Labour Party (centre-left progressive) and the National Party (centre-right conservative). Other parties currently represented in Parliament are New Zealand First (populist, nationalist), ACT (free market), the Greens (left-wing, environmentalist), United Future (family values), the Progressives (leftist), and the Māori Party (ethnic).

I think that MMP will create more headaches in trying to form coalitions than allowing the government of the day to lead the people and the province. Stick to “First Past The Post”. The current system may not always get your favourite party in power, but whomever is in power will be able to run the show without having to make a bunch of back room deals for support.

First Past The Post has my vote on Election Day.