Emotion or reason?

[cybercoma]

In a manner similar to the one Toya Graham demanded better behaviour from her son in Baltimore.

We should slap the crap out of our government? haha

[eyeball]

It would sure be nice if we could put as much emotion into the discipline we mete out to our governments...somehow a pencil and piece of paper every 4 or 5 years just doesn't convey much.

[cybercoma]

Can you blame them with how far removed they are from the process?

Party policy is made up in back rooms by unelected wonks. MPs are whipped into submission, acting like nothing more than lap dogs for the party brass. Even when we elect MPs, the FPTP system can make the majority of votes in a riding completely meaningless.

So what do we expect?

Individual votes are meaningless. The representative elected doesn't actually represent the riding's interests, but is nothing more than a lapdog for their party. Party leaders have nothing to fear from their MPs and have unmitigated power to do whatever they want between elections.

The system is broken and unrepresentative of Canadians' interests. And so, they abandon it, move towards other forms of activism via social media and other venues.

[Michael Hardner]

I would not call this kind of apathy a gift.

I get what you're saying, and maybe 'apathy' doesn't cover it enough - you're right.

How about, instead of a gift, a sign that people don't feel the need to participate. Some of that may be because the system takes care of us enough, and has gone on auto pilot. Some of it may be for the reasons you mention.

I think that a real change to the system should happen to reinvigorate the connection to government that democracy initially instilled in the citizen. To me, that does not include PR or online voting - those are just shortcuts.

[Michael Hardner]

This is an interesting paper that I really enjoyed when it came out - you can download the PDF here:

http://www.ppforum.com/publications/its-more-talk-final-report-new-brunswick-public-engagement-initiative

[Michael Hardner]

The system is broken and unrepresentative of Canadians' interests. And so, they abandon it, move towards other forms of activism via social media and other venues.

Doesn't it go: first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight with you, then you win ?

[Keepitsimple]

An interesting tidbit is that the electoral list (eligible voters) used to comprise about 60% of the population back in the 60's, 70's and even the 80's Recently, that figure has risen to about 75% of the population. Not sure what caused that increase or whether there is any correlation to the reduced voter turnout. Any thoughts?

Link: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index〈=e

[Michael Hardner]

An interesting tidbit is that the electoral list (eligible voters) used to comprise about 60% of the population back in the 60's, 70's and even the 80's Recently, that figure has risen to about 75% of the population. Not sure what caused that increase or whether there is any correlation to the reduced voter turnout. Any thoughts?

Link: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e

The only ideas I have about this are: the government is getting better at tracking people, or there was a higher proportion of under 18s at that time.

[cybercoma]

An interesting tidbit is that the electoral list (eligible voters) used to comprise about 60% of the population back in the 60's, 70's and even the 80's Recently, that figure has risen to about 75% of the population. Not sure what caused that increase or whether there is any correlation to the reduced voter turnout. Any thoughts?

Link: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index〈=e

The population is aging. The inverted triangle is looking more like an urn these days.

As a result, the proportion of people of voting age has increased.

[Angie84]

I will hold my nose and vote Tory in the next federal election. There really isn't an option for fiscal conservatives like myself. The Chretien Liberals of the 90's are more conservative than the Tories of today. Still, our federal government is better than almost all of our Western competitors. That is really tells what a sad state Western democracies have become. The Grits should have chosen Marc Garneau and the NDP is not even an option. Harper will spend less of my money than the other two clowns, so once again I will hold my nose and vote for the best of the worst.

[Keepitsimple]

I will hold my nose and vote Tory in the next federal election. There really isn't an option for fiscal conservatives like myself. The Chretien Liberals of the 90's are more conservative than the Tories of today. Still, our federal government is better than almost all of our Western competitors. That is really tells what a sad state Western democracies have become. The Grits should have chosen Marc Garneau and the NDP is not even an option. Harper will spend less of my money than the other two clowns, so once again I will hold my nose and vote for the best of the worst.

You're in the same boat as several other posters, including me.

[Smallc]

You're in the same boat as several other posters, including me.

Me too.

[Argus]

Me too.

Ditto. Though I wish he'd step down and let someone else take over. I would have said Jason Kenney was bulletproof until the TFW program

[cybercoma]

Oh yeah. You all are really holding your noses as you romp around the forum justifying everything Harper and his Conservatives do. That's hilarious. You complain about the lack of openness and accountability, yet do absolutely nothing to hold them accountable. That's sad.

[dre]

Me too.

I might have felt the same way a couple of years ago, but recently this government has written some of what I consider to be the worst legislation in Canadian history. I certainly dont want to see another Harper majority. I think at this point I would like to see a Liberal minority government.

[Topaz]

Canadians are coming out and telling the rest of us what exactly this government has been doing since they came to be. BTW, Would Harper be PM today if the party was called the Alliance or Reform? Would the NDP have a better chance if they changed their name to something else, it seems to have worked for the Alliance. This time around, I think the Tories have more Canadians against them than for them and even though the polls have them ahead a bit, I can't believe on election day the Tories could win..at least fairly.