And they're off...the election thread

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LOL.

Hey. I wanna give a shout out to my daughter this morning. She's 11 years old. A couple of days ago she participated in the Student Votes project at her school. She proudly told me that she voted Green. I'm giving her a shout out because that's not the way either her mother or I am planning to vote today. I asked her how she made the choice, and she said that she studied the platforms of the four main parties (and I asked her enough questions to satisfy myself that she had) and she made the decision that as far as she was concerned the Greens had the best platform and deserved her vote. She thought for herself instead of just going with mom or dad (and mom and dad don't actually agree on who to vote for!) Good for her! I hope more people follow her example, not necessarily by voting Green but by informing themselves and voting their conscience.


A very smart young girl (even if its not the party of my choice). I don't know if my granddaughter is as well informed - and she's voting today.
 
All of my children are extremely well-informed politically. They would be unable to talk to me if they weren't; it may be partly genetic, lol.

One of my sons lives in Australia, and will not be voting, although he's most interested in the result. The other son has already voted, I do not know for whom, but I know for not-whom. My daughter and her guy plan to vote today, again, I know only for 'not-whom'. My guy has voted, and so have I. That's 5 solid votes against, easily countering my guy's idiot parents daft votes.
 
All of my children are extremely well-informed politically. They would be unable to talk to me if they weren't; it may be partly genetic, lol.

Hearing your story and Steven's as well as my own experience makes me wonder how much of the alleged* apathy of the millennials is actually "inherited" or at least due to lack of political interest and discussion at home. My son and many of his friends seem quite interested in politics at 16 so I can't see it completely fizzling out in two years (or three or however long until there's an election for them to vote in).

* "alleged" because based on some things I've read and seen, I not sure that they are so much apathetic about politics as apathetic about how we do politics. If they felt the system worked and that they had a say in it, maybe they wouldn't seem so apathetic. Certainly, a lot of them seem to feel strongly about issues (like youth employment) that affect them.
 
Thanks all for the tips.

Ultimately, I walked the 15 minutes to the polls. Most previous elections have been held at a middle school with a bus stop right across the intersection. For some reason they moved things this year.

Ahh... there's a certain satisfaction that comes when one has voted. A certain pride that one has participated in one's democracy, has done one's best to help make this nation a great place to live in.
 
Proportional representation could be interesting. I just took some really rough calculations and compared AB to ON and QC. Our votes mean less here than there. We have more people per seat. Compared to ON about 10,000 more people. About 18,000 more than QC.
 
Proportional representation could be interesting. I just took some really rough calculations and compared AB to ON and QC. Our votes mean less here than there. We have more people per seat. Compared to ON about 10,000 more people. About 18,000 more than QC.

Right, but then Ontario and Quebec are simply more important provinces in Canada. There should be more seats here and in PQ.
 
Right, but then Ontario and Quebec are simply more important provinces in Canada. There should be more seats here and in PQ.

Um, no, it's rep by pop so we get more seats because we have more people. If BC or Alberta ever catches up, then a redistribution will be done at some point to rebalance that.

In a pure proportional system, it would be potentially be adjusted every election based on the most recent census figures. Ontario loses 2% of its population, Ontario loses 2% of its seats. Pure and simple math.
 
Um, no, it's rep by pop so we get more seats because we have more people. If BC or Alberta ever catches up, then a redistribution will be done at some point to rebalance that.

How is it rep by pop if, as @ChemGal said, "Our votes mean less here than there. We have more people per seat. Compared to ON about 10,000 more people. About 18,000 more than QC."
 
How is it rep by pop if, as @ChemGal said, "Our votes mean less here than there. We have more people per seat. Compared to ON about 10,000 more people. About 18,000 more than QC."
Because they are really slow on catching up. Alberta has the youngest population in Canada and also experiences faster growth. So we have a higher proportion of 18 year olds (not sure if the current system at least does a decent job at predicting that), but immigration into the province is defined not done quickly enough to leave things fairly equal.

I think there are also a few weird things with some provinces getting extra seats. I really don't know much about that though and could be totally wrong.
 
Um, no, it's rep by pop so we get more seats because we have more people. If BC or Alberta ever catches up, then a redistribution will be done at some point to rebalance that.

In a pure proportional system, it would be potentially be adjusted every election based on the most recent census figures. Ontario loses 2% of its population, Ontario loses 2% of its seats. Pure and simple math.
Do seats ever get lost? I thought they just add more.
 
@Pr. Jae

Haven't you heard of manipulation of the interpretation of the paradigm ... politicians and anarchy-like oligarchs do it all the time despite the lesser powers peeking at them ...
 
Hearing your story and Steven's as well as my own experience makes me wonder how much of the alleged* apathy of the millennials is actually "inherited" or at least due to lack of political interest and discussion at home. My son and many of his friends seem quite interested in politics at 16 so I can't see it completely fizzling out in two years (or three or however long until there's an election for them to vote in).

* "alleged" because based on some things I've read and seen, I not sure that they are so much apathetic about politics as apathetic about how we do politics. If they felt the system worked and that they had a say in it, maybe they wouldn't seem so apathetic. Certainly, a lot of them seem to feel strongly about issues (like youth employment) that affect them.

Parents certainly play a role in voter apathy. In my experience, religion can, too. I used to speak to quite large, live audiences in Montreal at the rate of 60 or so year. Some were churches. And my experience of Christian churches was that they wanted something pretty light, preferably with lots of humour. Jewish audiences expected pretty serious stuff with discussion after. The differences were pronounced. Jewish audiences were also made up of people who were quite well informed.
 
Parents certainly play a role in voter apathy. In my experience, religion can, too. I used to speak to quite large, live audiences in Montreal at the rate of 60 or so year. Some were churches. And my experience of Christian churches was that they wanted something pretty light, preferably with lots of humour. Jewish audiences expected pretty serious stuff with discussion after. The differences were pronounced. Jewish audiences were also made up of people who were quite well informed.
Religion playing a role in voter apathy? Hm, I don't know about that one. Our Senior Pastor always encourages to go and vote, making the "godly choice" of course.
 
Religion playing a role in voter apathy? Hm, I don't know about that one. Our Senior Pastor always encourages to go and vote, making the "godly choice" of course.

Does he explain how to ascertain the 'godly choice'? Does he provide a list of criteria? We have an all candidates meeting in the sanctuary, try to make the candidates abide by holy manners, and ask "social justice" and "anti-poverty" questions.
 
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