Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Ouch, my government
Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The phrase alone depresses me.
Just for fun, let's take a look at seat arrangements and the popular vote.
The Conservatives got 124 seats, and 36.25% of the popular vote.
36.25% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 112 seats.
The Liberals got 103 seats and 30.22% of the popular vote.
30.22% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 93 seats.
Bloc Quebecois got 51 seats, and 10.48% of the popular vote.
10.48% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 32 seats.
NDP got 29 seats, and 17.49% of the popular vote.
17.49% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 54 seats.
An independent got 1 seat, and 0.52% of the popular vote.
0.52% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 2 seats. (Though a lone independent might have trouble occupying two seats, but for the sake of argument...)
Other parties (I would assume mostly the Greens) got no seats, and 5.05% of the popular vote.
5.05% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 15 seats.
Anyone else see something wrong with this picture?
(Statistics courtesy of CBC.)
Fuck first-past-the-post elections.
posted by Jonathan at 9:50 AM
Sunday, January 22, 2006
VOTE TOMORROW!!!
If you are Canadian and 18 or older (and by some incredible act of God actually reading this), fucking vote tomorrow. Even if you support NONE of the parties, go in and spoil your ballot. Write something ridiculous on it, like "UP THE PUNX" or something. That's just as legitimate a form of voting as checking off the candidate of your choice. Think of it as a "none of the above" vote. The more people that actually get out there and vote, the more accurately the population as a whole will be represented in parliament. It won't be perfect, but it's the best we can hope for (until we get some proportional representation up in that motherfucker, but as I've said before, that's another rant).
posted by Jonathan at 6:23 PM
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Voting
So Monday is election day. I was just thinking about something a friend of mine said the other day. He said that voting for the NDP is a waste of a vote, because they're obviously not going to win in this riding. The part about them not winning in this riding is true. Norm Doyle, the Conservative candidate, is most likely taking this riding again. However, the idea of not voting for the NDP just because they're not going to win is bullshit. The way I see it, the point of voting is to vote for who you WANT to win, not who you THINK is going to win. This is the whole point of democracy: you vote for who YOU want, not what you think everyone else wants. That way, every voice should (though with our electoral system not every voice will, which is why I'm a proponent of proportional representation, but that's a different rant) be heard. I want the NDP to win in whatever riding I happen to be in at any given time. As such, I'll be voting for Mike Kehoe on Monday, because that's what I want. Do I want the Liberals or Conservatives to win? No. Which means it would be completely asinine to vote for either of them just because I don't think the NDP candidate is going to win.
posted by Jonathan at 5:01 PM
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
I'm not dead!
(Insert Monty Python scene here.)
Yeah, so I'm back at school, but I'll try to update shit. Really should get my galleries up and running. I'm working on a website for my friend Julian, so that should be online soon. I should be doing some painting soon too, since I got an easel and cnvases for Christmas.
So hang in there, even though there's probably no one reading this anyway. New stuff lies ahead.
posted by Jonathan at 7:30 PM
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy new year!
I'll update eventually. For the time being, I have a date with The Psychedelic Furs.
posted by Jonathan at 12:35 AM
