-TSS-
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Everything posted by -TSS-
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Do you think people hated less Mulroney, Chretien, Martin or Trudeau when they were in power?
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If any Canadian PM wanted Quebec to secede he wouldn't admit it in public.
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I think the advantage of the government to decide the date of the eelction gives it too much a headway and it becomes unfair. Elections should be on fixed dates instead of being called at the whims of governments.
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Tories to try a 2nd attempt to re-open abortion debate
-TSS- replied to Sleipnir's topic in Federal Politics in Canada
How many abortions are there annually in Canada as against live births? Of course I could find those statistics myself but I just can't be arsed as we have such eager-beavers on this forum doing all the work for us. However, I bet the ratio is not as good as in Finland where we have some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world but still 60,000 live births against 10,000 abortions. So, 1/7 of pregnancies are terminated. Of course, all the anti-abortion people cry out loud that equals to a genocide but I think having only 1/7 of pregnancies terminated is quite a good proportion indicating that there are fewer unwanted pregnancies than elsewhere. -
I'm so glad that I live in Finland which is an insignificant country the opinion of which counts for nothing. We live in a luxury in that sense that neither side of the Middle-East conflict views us as enemies because we don't matter. Unfortunately, some very foolish people in my country have started demanding that we take sides, some for the one side some for the other side. I can't see what is there to be achieved by antagonizing either side of the conflict against us and making them adding our name on the list of their enemies.
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One reason why Oliver Cromwell's republic in England in 1648-1660 became very unpopular was because of his religious zealotry. He, among other things, banned pubs and celebrating Christmas. Life under his rule became so miserable even by the standards of the 17th-century that once his republic collapsed the people were only too happy to welcome back the corrupt and despotic monarchs who at least allowed people to have some fun in life.
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Those electoral maps can be very misleading. One party may control a tiny part of a country but may still hold the majority of votes as the density of population varies so much. However, South-Korea is extremely densely populated, all of it.
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japan has had so many PM's in the recent years that I've had trouble keeping up. After all, they're still the world's third largest economy, therefore an important country.
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Is it the Jehovah's Witnesses, or which Christian creed is it, which does not celebrate Christmas because they view it as a pagan festival?
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Didn't the Democrats actually gain more votes in the recent House of Representatives elections than the Republicans but thanks to the gerrymandered electoral districts, the Republicans still won a majority?
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I'd like to ask you Canadians as you pretty much have the same climate as we in Finland that do you get every year the same chaos with the first snow. When it really snows all traffic goes into gridlock and there are several vehicles in the ditches or there are many collisions. The media reports it that winter surprised the car-drivers. It happens every year here in Finland and given the fact that due to our latitude winter should not come as a surprise in November, or perhaps even earlier, people who drive and don't know that it is winter should have their driving-licences revoked.
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As I said, I like christmas, it brings light into the darkest time of year, but having said that, all the fuss about christmas starts to early. The christmas-lights were switched on in the streets a week ago and it was still a month away from the actual christmas.
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I enjoy christmas. All the decorations bring some light into the darkness of the darkest time of year. I really don't care about the religion-part of all of it.
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In Finnish it is called "Joulu", in Swedish "Jul" and in Old English "Yuletide". To call the mid-winter festival as Christmas is a blatant incursion by the religious people. The mid-winter festival long predates Christianity.
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Palastinian Statehood on the 29th of November
-TSS- replied to login's topic in The Rest of the World
Neither side wants a two-state solution when as there can be no permanent peace without a two-state solution. An impossible equation to solve. -
CiU which is the ruling party in catalonia and supports the idea of independence had 62/135 seats in the earlier parliament. Now they only received 50 seats. That is considered a major setback for independence. However, they are not the only ones supporting independence. It could have had an effect on the way how people voted that the EU said that an independent Catalonia would have to apply for EU-membership if it wishes to belong to the EU. It wouldn't be automatically included. I wonder would the same thinking apply to an independent Scotland as well.
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Well, that's it about a new country in Europe. The nationalists have suffered severe setbacks in the election. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20482719
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Today is the day of regional elections in the Spanish province of Catalonia. If the nationalists win a majority they will hold a referendum on whether the province should secede from Spain. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20482719 Catalonia is the wealthiest part of Spain and given the current economic problems of Spain the region feels their burden is both unfair and too much. The Catalans have their own language and also in every other respect they are just as much diferent from Spain as, say, Portugal.
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Did you Support Israel Attack on Palestine
-TSS- replied to canvenconsulting's topic in The Rest of the World
I understand that Israel is the ally of the USA but not to tolerate a single word of criticism of Israel as if Israel just could do no wrong is taking the whole term "ally" to a new level. -
Did you Support Israel Attack on Palestine
-TSS- replied to canvenconsulting's topic in The Rest of the World
Israel is such a small strip of land that if they get a whiff that any of their neighbours is having nuclear weapons Israel must make a pre-emptive strike. One strike into Israel and the whole country becomes uninhabitable for decades. -
I can't put it more bluntly than this: If a party has 40% support then it is clearly wrong that the same party has 55-60% of parliamentary seats. Does someone really disagree with this?
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Elections under the FPTP-system are undeniably very entertaining as small swings in votes can cause massive changes in seats and the FPTP-system creates an impression that the electorate can kick out the whole bunch of government. Of course, in reality it is people in the marginal constituencies who decide elections in the FPTP-system. If you live in a region where one party holds sway but you support another party which may be nationally very popular but not in your area, your vote for that party counts for nothing.
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As I have pointed out earlier, there is one example of a country moving away from the FPTP-system into a PR-system and that is New Zealand. However, there have been complaints about how their MMP-system works and there were demands to return to the full FPTP-system. So, they had a referendum whether to ditch MMP and return to FPTP. 58% voted in favour of retaining MMP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_reform_in_New_Zealand
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Swedish system? A PR-system with a 4% threshold. However, they vote for party-lists, not individual candidates. So, I prefer the Finnish system of PR. When you vote for party-lists you can only influence how many people become MP's from any list, you can't influence who those people are as parties have put them in order.
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I was rather thinking having only two candidates on the second round, the two with most votes in the first round if no-one has received more than 50% of the votes in the first round. The French parliamentary elections are conducted by this system.