Apolitical Staples

Therefore the idea will go nowhere.

It is a good idea only if you reallocate seats but keep the total constant. The US also has a population increase, but you do not see it adding Senators or Congressmen every census cycle.

308 MPs @ 150K/MP + staff, travel etc are enough.

Ontario is the most under represented province in the House of Commons so I would think that, unless Harper tries to screw Ontario by only giving more seats to Alberta or gerrymandering the ridings (neither of which I would put past him, especially the former), this is a good thing for Ontario.

That in itself will likely make the rest of the country very wary about this change.

If it means that Quebec’s strength in the House is diminished then even the Conservatives wouldn’t support it.

This is a good idea and something that should be done.

Is there any information on what the proposed new map would look like? How many new ridings would the three big provinces get, and where would they be?

IP - given that most of the GTA growth from 2001-2006 was in the 905 area code, as opposed to 0.9% per annum in the 416, there will be plenty of seats to be added in GO Train Country. There’s a reason the Liberals and Tories are pushing a subway line beyond York University into Vaughan despite the likelihood that it could damage not just the TTC but Toronto itself.

I still favor reducing the number of seats in liberal strongholds like down east myself. It could get to the point where some of these ridings keep getting smaller and smaller and then what? Increasing the seat count will help conservatives gain more seats though but this has to stop sooner or later.

It is a good idea, as long as they leave it up to elections Canada to draw the boundaries. Any hint of political interference will spell doom for this initiative and it is a much needed change.

cb:

But you have to add seats because Quebec gets their guaranteed 75, something about Le Chatalier’s Principle.

here comes ….it’s big …drum role please …

“The Conservative government has introduced a bill aimed at increasing voter turnout in the next federal election, by adding two advanced poll dates. The first will be the Sunday eight days before election day, and the second will be the Sunday immediately before election day.”

Mark,

Actually, I was more interested in what might happen in Alberta. You know, not everybody lives in the centre of the universe. ;-)

The Conservative government has introduced a bill aimed at increasing voter turnout in the next federal election, by adding two advanced poll dates.

There is something fishy going on with advance polls. A couple of years ago when the Libs were going into serious damage-control mode over ChretienMartinGate, a lady who was one of the workers at an advance poll phoned the radio station and said, “Afterwards they just dumped all the ballots out”, (I think it was so they could move them or some other flimsy excuse), “and anyone could see what was marked on all the ballots”. And there were several other complaints about questionable goings-on.

I suspect that whichever party has the most volunteers and the most money is motivated to get a lot of people into advance polls so that they can have a little peek at what’s going on in key ridings and then prepare to do a massive resource shift on election day of resources from safe/lost ridings into bubble ridings. I.e. hustle the blue hairs in, register a few hundred more voters, vote early vote often … whatever it takes.

And don’t be thinking that you’re going to fix these problems by redrawing ridings, poll tweaking, proportionate voting, blah, blah, blah. You - the casually interested, well-meaning political blogger and democracy-swallowing public school graduate - only have a small part of your life to think about how to perfect the rules of democracy. But the political rats - people who live and breathe politics from puberty right through to senility - have nothing better to do with their time than to sit around figuring out how to game, bend, twist, manipulate and milk every possible electoral reform that is proposed. Giving them a fatter rulebook is just giving them more loopholes to slither through and more confusion to hide their scams behind.

And why is the political sphere such a magnet for the lazy, dishonest and cunning? Because you idiots (and your parents and grandparents) lost interest in your old freedom and property and you gave them away to other people to manage for you. No wonder they sit around all day thinking of ways to pull the wool over your eyes and bamboozle you into sending them to parliament. You’ve made it worth their while.

Well, Greg, this fellow idiot stands with you. Proper rep-by-prop throughout this country is a reform I definitely support.