Write a few comments on how we vote and suffer the outrage of readers. Write about something serious and it’s ‘ho-hum.’ It’s not fair, you know. Last week I was called, among other nasties: “The finest mind in the 16th Century.” All I did was comment on the foolishness of
Continue readingTag: The Democracy Papers
Babel-on-the-Bay: The Senate of Canada sleeps on.
It was surprising. A regular reader who frequently agrees with Babel-on-the-Bay has changed his mind about the undemocratic anachronism of Canada’s Senate. Now he thinks he likes the elitist appointments. He met a Senator he likes. I used to know a lot of Senators I liked. That hardly means that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And a Very Merry to B.C.
And here we were worried that our friends out on the Left Coast were being had! They got a really nice pre-Christmas present the other day. They got rid of one of the worst suggestions we had seen for a form of proportional voting. The citizens wisely said “No” in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Defectors define democracy.
One of the critical strengths of our Canadian democracy is that we elect people in each electoral district to represent us in parliament. While we might choose them because of the party they represent, they have the right to determine at any time whether or not to be a part
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Biting the hand with the handouts.
We have warned Justin Trudeau repeatedly that those so-called independent senators are going to bite him on the bum. Blame him for all those Christmas presents that Canada Post cannot deliver by Christmas this year. Every day of further delay is thousands of packages undelivered. But elitism cannot be rushed.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our friends in B.C have been ‘RUP’ted.
Not being from the Wet coast as our friends there sometimes call their beautiful province, we had to get our information about the current British Columbia voting referendum from the Internet. It made sense until we found out that one of the possible voting systems was called RUP. This was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Let’s have ‘Whack-a-Mole’ voting.
Blame Chantal Hébert. The other day she described the voting reform question as a whack-a-mole game. It just keeps popping up and needs to get a whack. The only reason Chantal noted it was because neophyte premier François Legault of the CAQ in Quebec made the same rash promise to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A relentless push for change.
As best as I can follow the Google Analytics information about readership, there is a consistent and steady stream of world wide web users visiting the Democracy Papers. I wrote these papers in 2007 for the provincial referendum on voting in Ontario. It looks like more than 30,000 individual readers
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ten reasons for first-past-the-post voting.
The following has been retrieved from the archives of Babel-on-the-Bay. It is part of the Democracy Papers and has been the most read item in our web site. Thousands of readers have searched for and presumably read the content. It was originally written for the Ontario referendum on mixed-member proportional
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Well here’s another nice mess, Ollie!”
Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are probably too young to remember the 1920s to 1950s Hollywood comedy team of Laurel and Hardy but they seem to have a comparable act. It was Monsef’s turn on Thursday to dismiss the work of her own committee on
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau doesn’t know democracy.
One of the promises Justin Trudeau made to Canadian Liberals before becoming Liberal leader was that he would restore democracy in the party. He lied. He is now asking us to give up any of the rights we had as members of the Liberal Party of Canada. Justin Trudeau wants the Liberal Party to just […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Without it, how do you reform democracy?
Minister Maryam Monsef has been heard from. The maybe minister of democratic institutions has announced a committee of MPs will spend their summer studying changes to Canada’s election system. What the minister does not seem to understand is that changes in our democracy have to be done democratically. This is not a democratic committee. It […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Are they damning democracy?
It is appalling the number of Canadians who say they want voter reform without bothering to research or understand the subject. Sitting in an audience recently with apparently a high percentage of New Democrat supporters, it was surprising how eager they are to reform how we vote. The speaker made
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: First-Past-the-Post debate ignites Brits.
A sudden influx of hundreds of readers can make any blogger’s heart go pit-a-pat. Since last week, Babel-on-the-Bay’s readership has reached new heights. It was not because of our sage advice on Canadian elections but something written eight years ago at the time of the Ontario referendum on voting reform.
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