Smeelious

Couple things (this thread got everywhere awfully fast) 1. Mandatory Voting I can count on one finger how many times I haven't voted since being able. That one time was because I felt all the parties were the worst of the worst options. I feel like being forced to vote in that Election would have been denying my "right" to vote. Yes, I could have spoiled my vote. I was actually considering writing my own name in...Anyway, mandatory voting bad. 2. On PR and the lack of Conservative Majorities. One of the primary reasons to consider switching voting schema would be to increase voter turnout. Disenfranchising a large portion of the populous would have the opposite effect...should this actually happen. Although as other people have pointed out, the parties would likely change which would largely change how the votes are distributed. 3. On Schema STV baby! Quite honestly, since the removal of the "party funding per vote thing", my vote hasn't amounted to anything. My vote hasn't resulted in electing a member of parliament, as such I feel that "I" don't have representation. Although to be honest in my riding, I would vote for my incumbent MP, but not his party (though I doubt under STV he would be ...bleh this could go on forever. next. 4. On how the parties would change. (hopefully for the better) Given some form of more PR voting, I would hope that the party landscape would change significantly. More choice of parties would likely have the benefit of increasing voter turnout since the individual parties are more likely to find common ground with individual voters. Personally I would love to see a conservative party that had a much larger focus on the environment. The 'liberals' wouldn't have to pander as much to the far left, and the far left wouldn't have to pander to the center. And I think most importantly, the center right wouldn't have to pander to the far right, and as such would end up with a lot more votes. (The "anyone but" wouldn't be an issue)

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=9&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEUQtwIwCGoVChMIwsrglbOryAIVxHc-Ch0OpAy6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dl8XOZJkozfI&usg=AFQjCNGizrI3OXYeMcQ6Mu9VqSy8TvEzzw&sig2=ABqKARC_qMkkJ5tzOoxiuw&bvm=bv.104317490,d.cWw The video that originally brought me on to STV.

I really don't understand the prevalence of the national "support" polls. They are completely useless in determining who will actually win the election. I guess it's simpler than saying "Hey the election is going to be decided in 14 ridings again, probably somewhere in Ontario and Quebec, and hey your vote doesn't actually matter!" I do like the way "The Signal" breaks down a lot of the information though. I am curious what happened on Sept 7,8,9 that sparked the divergence of the numbers. I took a quick look, and other than Syrian Refugee's I don't see much...And why don't news agencies have a show by date anyway? Didn't they used to?

Does it though? Would a modest increase in taxes actually effect the job creation of a company? Somehow I doubt it. Made op Anecdote of Randomness: "Hi Bobby, Sorry to say we can't renew your contract this year because those blasted NDP raised the corporate tax rate" "Err...Who is going to do work X that I normally do then?" "Oh Company Y came in with a proposal to do the work, which we didn't bother including you in the bidding process on because NDP." While I appreciate that companies always restructure in the face of dwindling profits, resulting in the loss of jobs...I don't think I fixed extra (relatively trivial) business cost would have that much of an impact, especially when profits are likely to fluctuate in a much greater amount than the increase of taxes on the business. I'd argue that it's mostly the same issue with lower tax on gas, the lower tax wouldn't be noticeable because of the fluctuation in the retail cost.

Yeah, I must have read that wrong...

Personally, I think Micheal Chong would make a good conservative leader... To the topic, Harper has said that he would go if the Conservatives lost even one seat. So I suspect he'll go. He's had a good run, and I shudder to think who will actually take his place at the head of the Cons. I suspect Muclair will be gone after this election, unless by some chance they win. Trudeau has a ways to go yet. It would take an extraordinarily bad showing for him to be ousted. (Like being reduced to 2 seats...)