"CB" (jrcb)
09/25/2019 at 02:24 • Filed to: Politics
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"CB" (jrcb)
09/25/2019 at 02:24 • Filed to: Politics | 1
| 7 |
Federal election is coming up and I finally have a list of people to vote for in my riding. While it’s important to think about the big issues, it’s also important to remember that there’s an individual representing your community’s best interests. So, my local candidates are:
Incumbent politician (former sign maker) , who has the sweet title of “Deputy Shadow Minister” in Parliament , which makes her sound like a Yugi-Oh villain. High on the list based on that alone.
Goat farmer/small town museum curator. Unsure of where she falls, but hey, at least it would be interesting to see. Unsure if she’ll bring the goats to Ottawa.
A guy who is part of the Ukranian Council of Canada. Not enough info on him.
A small town councillor/former electrical engineer who worked in the potash mines. Sounds qualified, don’t like his party.
An economics student tired of working minimum wage jobs. 100% legit, I dig it.
Whelp, one of these people is going to represent me in the federal government. I know the incumbent will likely win and is most likely the most competent. But just a reminder, that it’s not lawyers, people who went to law school, and brilliant experts that represent us, but sometimes, it’s just the dude who lives down the street. Which, you know what, explains a lot.
Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> CB
09/25/2019 at 04:19 |
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In NZ w e have a MMP proportional representation system, which leads to an interesting disconnect between who you vote for as your representative and who you vote for as a party. I’m a pretty solid Labour (centre-left) voter, but more often than not I wind up voting for someone other than the L abour candidate at an electorate level. Sometimes it’s been because the non-Labour incumbent has done a good job of repping for local issues, once it’s been because the Labour candidate was high enough on the list that they were going to get in anyway and I figured we might as well get 2 “locals” for the price of one, and once because the Labour candidate was a complete waste of space and the National candidate - even though they’d be about my #3 choice for local representative - had the best chance of ousting her.
Even aside from the “proportional” aspects of it, I really like MMP because it lets you think about who’ll represent your local interests independent of which party you favour at a policy level.
This will get even more interesting at the next election, because I’ve moved to a rural electorate, and as well as learning up on which candidates are idiots or hacks, I also need to figure out where I stand on “represents the local interests of a community of farmers” and “represents my interests as a non-farmer living in a community of farmers ”. And that’s even aside from the party level decision between “media friendly and vapid ” (Labour ), “venal and corrupt” (National), “idealistic and unrealistic” (Green), and “you cannot be serious” (several minor parties).
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CB
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
09/25/2019 at 04:41 |
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Yeah, here unfortunately people vote for the party more often than their local rep. I'd be interested in doing more reading on the NZ system, considering I voted for voter reform in the last election.
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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> CB
09/25/2019 at 04:55 |
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Definite case of pros and cons. It’s nice that you don’t get the largest minority forcing their will on everyone the way you do under FPP. But against that, sometimes the minor parties wield too much power - we’ve had a few instances of that since we went proportional. Plus every government winds up being a coalition, which makes it hard for them to actually achieve anything. Though many would consider that a feature rather than a bug!
While some people have figured out the party vs person thing, a good solid majority haven’t, so electoral votes are still dominated by party politics. And unfortunately MMP doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of politics: that if someone wants power, that’s a pretty good indicator that they shouldn’t be allowed to have it.
There are times when I think you should have to pass a civics exam before you’re allowed to vote...
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CB
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
09/25/2019 at 05:08 |
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I was required to take a civics class in 10th grade. How many people would actually retain what they learned is a better question.
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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> CB
09/25/2019 at 05:12 |
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It’s literally not even a school subject in NZ. But then we’re currently having a big public debate because the education department have proposed that - shock, horror - NZ history should be part of the high school history curriculum. So clearly we’re not good at this shit.
CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
> CB
09/25/2019 at 08:40 |
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Our incumbent died so we don’t currently have an MP. Should be interesting
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CB
> CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
09/25/2019 at 17:02 |
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Good luck. Just over four weeks until this nonsense is done with.