Blue Like You

Archive for September 8th, 2007

One of my absolute favourite reporters, Christie Blatchford gives us a little taste of what she won’t miss about Afghanistan.

There’s a lot to be said for blogging in your pajamas - in Canada.

Welcome home, Christie!

In case these interesting tidbits missed your perusal, the Globe had a great editorial this morning - Taxing and Spending. Also Sandy has just posted a thought-provoking piece at Jack’s Newswatch - Ontario’s Health Premium = surplus!

Do you think we’ve been ‘had’?

For once it appears that Stephane Dion and the present government are in agreement on something - that Elections Canada went way overboard with political-correctness zeal when decreeing that women could vote with their faces covered:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said “Canadian citizens have a responsibility to fully reveal their identities” when voting. He called on Elections Canada to rethink the decision.

“We find it doesn’t make any sense,” said Cannon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Quebec lieutenant. “As a government and a political party, we do not agree with Elections Canada.”

Charest also disagreed. “For me, it’s a bad decision,” he said. “The federal chief returning officer should have done the same thing we did in Quebec, which is that everyone who presents themselves to exercise their right to vote must be clearly identified. For me, it’s as simple as that.”

It would seem that will of our democratically-elected representatives has been circumvented. And if almost all politicians appear to be in agreement in this regard, Elections Canada should give its burgeoning, bureaucratic head a shake.

Even Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress shows more common sense:

The solution, he said is as simple as having women who wear the niqab show their faces to female elections officials.

“We don’t want to force anybody to change their religious inclination and beliefs,” he explained, pointing out it is also important for women from religious minorities to vote. “At the same time there is a certain level of integrity in the election process that we must maintain.”

That’s right. Have them show their faces to a female returning officer; even in a separate room if necessary.

Or let’s vote on it in a national referendum - with faces fully visible and eyes wide open.

Kudos to Philip Jalsevac of the Record for providing Ontario voters with this excellent explanation of the upcoming referendum question - A chance to reimagine Ontario. Title notwithstanding, it is a fairly non-partisan analysis, and quite comprehensive in its approach.

I am still in the “No” camp, but the article presents many interesting points that are worth considering. If you study the accompanying diagram in the Record, it would almost seem beneficial for the PC party to be pushing for this change.

However, I was impressed by the decision of U. of W. political scientist Peter Woolstencroft’s offer to help the “No” side:

“Do we want to have MPPs who will be passing laws who are not directly elected by the voters and are not accountable to electors in a district?” Woolstencroft said.

He hopes a group of local people will come together to “look at our options” and develop a plan for an opposition campaign in Waterloo Region.

However, he said the No side is well behind “organizationally and financially . . . The reformers have been out there for a long time beating the drum.”

His voice lends a great deal of credibility to the cause for trying to come up with an alternate solution. It doesn’t have to be a decision of MMP or status quo forever.

There are other models out there.

FPTP has its flaws, but why therefore opt for a less democratic Ontario?