-TSS-

I think having a system like in Canada, or in the UK for that matter, whereby the PM can call an election at a whim or whenever the polls look good, gives an unfair advantage to the government. I'm not saying that having fixed-term parliaments whereby elections only take place on a certain date, no matter how serious a political crisis is going on, would be a better system but something in between those extremes. There should be a chance for an early election but that should not be a light-hearted decision.

How is that even possible given the Canadian system where the PM can call an election at any time? If the opposition does not even have a leader, the government really needs to be unpopular to lse the election.

What is your opinion on the idea of introducing fixed-term parliaments? I know it is easy to argue very convincingly for and against introducing fixed terms but especially in a country like Canada which is huge and has a federal form of government, as much predictability is needed as possible. On the other hand, fixed-term parliaments is a recipe for a political stalemates. If there is a crisis which can not be solved by any other way than to call a new election then why should some fixed election dates be so holy as not to breach them?

Interesting statistics. As always with statistics, there is something one does not agree with and with me the thing which makes me doubt is the relatively high position of the United Kingdom. After all, aren't we talking about the relation of any given level of education to the entire population?

I must admit that this thread has made me think if I am a prisoner of my own prejudices. The way I observed the ad was that a silly Asian bimbo was saying that let's throw all the money away and that's fun. Then a wise white man comes and says that let's not do that, that's just not clever. That's the way I saw the ad. Perhaps the people who this ad was targetted towards are more broad-minded and don't see any Asian/white-thing but just a silly person and a clever person. However, in Europe, especially in England, if you ran an ad where there is a clever person and an idiot and if the clever person was a white man you better make sure that the idiot is also a white man. Otherwise there would be an unimaginable outcry.

Even though I don't agree with you I must admit that I respect the way you rise up when your country is being mocked. And yes, a lot of people's perception of America is very stereotypical. Many people who have never even visited the country think they know everything about it. The reason why I made the point about Michigan must not have a lot of Asians was because the ad had an Asian woman making silly remarks about spending everything right away and after that a wise white man comes saying that spending is not a wise idea. I thought that a lot of Asians must find that ad very distasteful and offensive.

I think the French are doing disservice to their system by holding both presidential and parliamentary elections so close to each other. Especially as the presidential elections capture all the attention, the legislative elections a month later are bound to fall flat.

I guess Canada has a similar little brother-complex to the US as we in Finland have to Sweden. Both countries mirror their achievements in comparison to the "big brother" who often does not take the slightest notice whatever the kid brother has been doing.

I don't know exactly which state we are talking about but somehow I don't think there is a strong Asian vote involved in that state. I agree, that clip was hilarious but also a sad reflection of the American politics.

Indeed, I dislike Gingrich for his politics and everything he represents and stands for but if one wishes to dislike him for further reasons than that it is not difficult to find those reasons to dislike him. Actually, it is terrifying that there are millions of people who really think he'd make the best president of the alternatives on offer.

Our president-elect here in Finland has a wife who is 29 years younger than him. He won the election beating a candidate who is gay and has a registered partnership with a man 20 years younger than him and coming from Ecuador.

Is it an embarrassing lack of knowledge for a Canadian not to know the religious creed of the Canadian PM or is it quite common that no-one knows and no-one even cares about whether the PM is protestant, catholic, baptist, mormon or what have you?

My guess is that Romney has no choice but to pick someone from the right-wing of the Republicans as his running-mate in order to convince the party as he is seen by too many people as too moderate. Unfortunately, that means someone from the tea-party movement meaning that the person must be a religious lunatic who hates the federal government.

Actually, I'm surprised by that fresh water-data concerning Australia being in the same category as most countries in the northern hemisphere. After all, we all hear stories about Australia being hopelessly arid and how they really need to create their water as they don't have resources by themselves.

Indeed, 10000 dollars may be pocket money for Romney but doesn't he realise that offering playful bets on that sum on live TV just isn't very good campaigning?

I don't think it goes down too well with the average voters that Romney only pays 15% tax on his millions of income. Similarly with McCain, wasn't it in the 2008 campaign when he was asked about his fortune that he wasn't entirely sure how many houses he owns? I don't think people associate well with people who are not sure how many houses they own.

Indeed, Obama has been a mediocre president but he wil get re-elected because the alternative on offer is even worse.

History is repeating itself again; Whoever tries to conquer Afghanistan finds himself in an endless quarry of endless troubles. This is what many of my countrymen just don't realize. We are going to join NATO because we are afraid of the Russians but when we eventually join NATO instead of having just fears of war we are going to have wars in real places over issues which have nothing to do with us.

If it wasn't a serious issue involving deaths of people, the captain's behaviour would make just brilliant comedy.

I don't think this has ever been a serious alternative; McCain only became a candidate in 2008 because the republicans knew that they were going to lose the election following 8 years of George W. He was an old warhorse who offered to his party to lead a hopeless battle. I think he deliberately chose someone like Sarah Palin as running mate to make sure that he would lose.

Can he be considered as following in the footsteps of the two Pats whn his political agenda is concerned? I mean Robertson and Buchanan?

It speaks volumes that I couldn't find this news story anywhere on the Finnish media. I wonder why. Because it paints the muslims in a bad light? However, the whole concept of honour killings is just insane. The correct term would be coward killings.

I'm glad that Reagan wasn't president during 9/11. He probably would have nuked Afganistan on 9/12.

I wonder why Santorum and Paul are not even contesting in Florida, after all it is a big and important state and yields a lot of delegates.

Is Winnipeg ever going to be transfered to a more appropriate division? I know that they are where they are because they used to be Atlanta but don't you think it is about time the divisions were changed to match the current situation?