Post Election Numbers

Well, the election is done, and while the new parliament looks suspiciously like the old one, it's once more a case of the majority of the people not getting the government they want.

As everyone probably knows, Canada uses a first-past-the-post system -- whoever gets the most votes, wins. This works well when you only have two parties running, but not so well when you have multiple parties. Here are some numbers from Fair Vote Canada. showing how many seats everyone got, versus how many they should have gotten.

Number of Seats in Parliament:
Conservatives - 143
Liberals - 76
NDP - 37
Bloc - 50
Greens - not 0

Actual Percentage of the Popular Vote Each Party Received:
Conservatives - 38%
Liberals - 26%
NDP - 18%
Bloc - 10%
Greens - 7%

Now, if we were using a system of proportional representation, twe would still have a minority government, but the seat distribution would look quite different:

Seats in Parliament based on Popular Vote
Conservatives - 117
Liberals - 81
NDP - 57
Bloc - 28
Greens - 23

To put it another way:
- If you were a Conservative supporter voting in Toronto, your vote didn't count.
- If you were an NDP supporter voting in Quebec, your vote didn't count.
- If you were a Liberal supporter voting on the prairies, your vote didn't count.

Proportional Representation is a much better syetem than the one we are using because it means that all Canadians get represented, and reflects the true political make-up of the country, both nationally and regionally. It also, because it usually results in minority governments, forces all parties to work together to make laws and policy. Not a bad thing, really.

So, if you haven't yet, I encourage you to learn about Proportional Representation, and ask your MP (and MPP) to support it.

Fair Vote Canada is a good place to start.

More Politics - Proportional Representation

There's a post over at a friend of mine's blog about strategic voting -- when it works and when it doesn't. It's a good post and something to ponder in these days of faux democracy that we live in.

Meanwhile, got an email from Fair Vote Canada asking me to read their open letter to strategic voters and vote swappers. It's a good reminder that there is the possibility for a better system, if we can get enough people to agree on it.

Here's the letter. Have a read.

Me, I'm a whole-hearted supporter of Proportional Representation myself. Makes sense in a multi-party system and it really isn't that hard to implement.

If you are a supporter and haven't signed the petition calling for proportional representation, here's where to go.

Ordinary Canadians on the Arts

Here's a message from some ordinary Canadians about Stephen Harper's arts funding cuts.

I'm going to keep moving it to the top, because I think it's important.

Stop a Stupid Law

Jim Prentice has come out with a new copyright bill for Canada.

It sucks.

Help stop it.

Copyright for Canadians is the first place to visit to understand what is going on. Here's a quote from the front page of the website:

Forward-thinking reform to copyright is possible: laws that recognise the growth and importance of the Internet, open source software, and new business models for creators. Canada could take the initiative, and lead the world.

Instead, new legislation proposed by this government is a sell-out to the United States’ government and media’s demands. C-61 includes wholesale import of the worst provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act — a law that the U.S. passed in 1997 and has been widely seen as a damaging failure. Instead of inviting a new era, the current government is intent on repeating all the mistakes of the last decade.

This is not be a copyright law for Canadians. It is a copyright law from entrenched U.S. lobbyists and politicians. Join us, and fight back!

Get the information and send a letter to your MP. This bill is stupid and needs to be stopped.

For more detailed ananysis, go here.

To read the bill in its entirity, go here.

I Agree

Stephane Dion needs to go.

As soon as possible.

Defining Liberalism

Chet over at The Vanity Press has a great post defining Liberalism, and given how the conservatives are constantly attacking the concept (more so in the USA than here, where they are too busy attacking the Liberal Party and just work on undermining liberalism without noising about why it's bad) it's good to remember what liberalism is and why it's worthwhile.

Have a read.

It's a good definition. Thanks, Chet.

Politics: SPP and What It Means for Democracy

There are many writers on the web who are far more intelligent than I. One of them is Zapagringo, whose very intelligent look at the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (commonly referred to as SPP) gives a lot of very good reasons why we as citizens should be taking note and fighting very hard against it.

Please read it.

My reason is this:

Any time the Prime Minister engages in making agreements on behalf of the country with another government nation or national leader without consulting Parliament and the people of Canada, that Prime Minister is deliberately flouting the democratic process which forms the basis of Canadian society.

Before a democratic nation chooses to enter into an agreement with another nation, that agreement must be made public to the people, and scrutinized by the people's elected representatives. Anything else is contradictory to the spirit of democracy.

If you haven't already, now is the time to start taking action. Call or email your local MP and demand the government create a clear, transparent process for SPP in Canada, including full Parliamentary and Senate scrutiny of all previously signed agreements, and votes in the House of Commons on all agreements to be signed in the future.

Another great link (Hat tip to Zapagringo):

Integrate This

Well, I'm All Annoyed Now

And on several fronts. First, because of the Conservatives newly introduced rules for campaign financing, which were written, as near as I can tell, to ensure that only the rich or those supported by the banks can afford to run for office.

Thanks, Stevie, for taking another chunk out of our democracy. And why haven't you disclosed who gave you money for your 2002 leadership campaign?

Second, because I missed posting the ultimate geek post this Friday past. That's right, last Friday was Darth Vader Day and I missed it (two points to the first one to figure out why it was Darth Vader Day).

To be fair, I was exhausted and fell into bed early. And can you believe it? The kid slept until 8 AM. I got 10 hours sleep. It was glorious.

Third, I also on Friday came across a ton of Geek Links to put in, but can I remember any of them now? Sigh. no.

Now, onto happy things. The last reading of the galley proofs proceeds apace. I'm on page 215 and at this rate will be done well before May 15, which is the deadline I set myself. Then they go back to Dragon Moon, off to the printer and soon we'll all be holding books in our grubby little hands.

After that (more happy thoughts) I can start writing again! Cold Magics is pining for me like a Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords, and vice-versa. I am looking forward to getting back to it and getting it done. Not to mention the other two projects I've got on my mind.

Get in shape month proceeds apace. Got five of the six workouts in that I wanted, will shoot to get all six in this week. No swordfighting, but hopefully next week. And I don't know what it is about my workout, but my hamstrings are burnt. Running up that last hill this morning nearly killed me.

And that's all for the moment. More editing to do before bed.

Meanwhile, did you see that they think they've discovered Herod's tomb?

Back to work.

Easter Sunday Night Post

Happy Easter to any Christians reading this post, and to the rest, happy whatever makes this day good for you.

My daughter returned from her first overnight visit to Mum-Mum's house (her maternal grandmother). Apparently all went well, save that my daughter did not sleep well in the playpen we sent, and as a result, neither did Mum-Mum. Good to have a day or two on our own, good to have her back.

I have finished re-reading the draft of Small Magics and am going to send it through the spellchecker once more before it goes back to my publisher (Dragon Moon Press) for final proofs. The cover art is coming along swimmingly (and you'll notice I've added Laura Diehl's link to my list on the side there). Laura has done a great job, and put up with me which is no easy feat.

And now, because I read this recently, and meant to post it earlier, I'm going to put here an abridged quote on the nature of existence by Leo Rosten. It struck a chord with me when I found it on the Walking with Ghosts blog, so I thought I'd share it:

Credo, Leo Rosten

I BELIEVE that you can understand people better if you look at them as if they are children. For most of us never mature; we simply grow taller.

I have learned that everyone - in some small, secret sanctuary of the self - is mad. If we want to stay sane we must moderate our demands - on ourselves and others.

I have learned that everyone is lonely at bottom, and cries to be understood; but we can never entirely understand someone else, no matter how much we want to; and each of us will forever be part stranger - even to those who love us most.

I have learned that it is the weak who are cruel and that kindness is to be expected only from the strong.

I have had to learn that life - so precious, so variable, so honeycombed with richness and delight - is held cheap in the scheme of impersonal events. When a human life is snuffed out in an instant, without meaning, without reason, without justice, how can one deny that all our lives hang by threads of nothing more than luck? I cannot escape the awareness that in our last bewildered moment just before we die three simple, awful questions cry out from our souls: 'Why me? Why now? Why forever?'

I have come to see that every person is subject to fantasies so obscene, yearnings so mendacious, drives so destructive that even to mention them shakes the gates we have erected against the barbarian within.

I have been driven to believe that no despotism is more terrible than the tyranny of neurosis. No punishment is more pitiless, more harsh and cunning and malevolent, than what we inflict upon ourselves.

Most men feel cheated if happiness eludes them. But where has it been written that life will be easy, our days untroubled by suffering, our nights unfouled by the beasts within our nature? Where, indeed, is it guaranteed that life will be at the very least fair?

People debase 'the pursuit of happiness' into a narcotic pursuit of 'fun'. To me this is demeaning. I would question the sanity of anyone not often torn by despair. Euphoria is the province of lunatics. I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'happy'.

I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honourable, to be compassionate. It is above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.

And while looking up the reference to who Leo Rosten was for those who wish to know, I found this quote from the man which nicely sums up one of the major problems with neo-conservatives, both north and south of the 49th:

Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them.

And now, I am going to bed.