Canadian Democracy

 Its that time again. We need to pick our fearless leader for the next few years. Let me be 100% honest, I love democracy. There literally isn't a better system, what I don't like is our broken democracy. Not that I don't like it actually, I think it needs tweeked. Before I start let me give you a bit of a back story on this. I saw a post on social media the other day. It was a map of the Canadian provinces. There was a line drawn between Ontario and the East with the West and the North on the other side. With the comment, until this changes nothing changes. It showed the East having 231 seats and the West and North only having 107. The implication is the East really has the power and out here we really don't matter. This is true, both the fact and the implication. Really by the time the results are in from Ontario we can usually tell our government. Ya Democracy! What got me going was someone chiming in this is fine, it is based on the population and that's how it should be. We vote in our government, BUT do we? 

First lets look at the 1 person, 1 vote thought. That is the basis of democracy BUT is it how our system works. I am going to use a provincial example as it is more personal to me, keep in mind the system is the same federal or provincial so the same logic and rules apply. I hate Alberta politics. Kenney and the UCP are clowns. Or at least he is, the party MAY be okay but I couldn't vote for him. The NDP and Ratchet are just as awful and honestly have only gotten worse since they won. I haven't heard one useful or helpful thing from them since they were booted from power. SO I went with the Alberta party. The truth is they are closer to the Progressive Conservatives than the UCP.... Conservative or right-leaning economics but left and better social programs. I dig it.... But that's beside the point. Anyways going into the election the Alberta party held 1 seat with barely over 2% of the popular vote. They climbed almost 7% in the popular vote ending with just over 9%! There are 87 seats, at 9% they should claim 7.83 seats! Since .83 isn't valid lets just give my guys 8 seats!!! No in reality it is nothing, but that would be great growth for them right? Wrong. Even though they had gained more votes and grown province wide they were shut out, getting 0 seats. 0. The NDP in Alberta had 619,147 votes for them and ended with 24 seats. The Alberta party had 171,996 votes and got 0. They had 1/6 of the votes so you would assume that way then at least 4 seats but no. The fact is 9% of voters or 171,996 people did not get their vote heard. The reality is those votes did not matter. The same happens with the East and West of Canada. Our votes do not matter and that is not right. The two major parties federally have admitted this. IN FACT both have said they wanted to "fix" it. Harper wanted popular vote until he gained power, then it hit the back burner. Trudeau raved about it! It needed fixed, until he gained power. The popular vote regularly doesn't match with the actual seat counts. So as long as a party is in power they aren't going to want to fix that and lose seats. The fact is the Conservatives had more of the popular vote than the Libs in the 2019 election. But Justin got his minority. You don't hear him championing popular vote now..... So I am not saying this as a Lib or Con thing, they both play to it when it suits them. My point is they both know its broken, until it doesn't help them. This part is getting long winded so I move on but 1 vote is not equal unless it is based on popular vote. 

Next is the massive landmass we call Canada. I am from a "small" Northern Alberta town. I moved to the big city. It was going to be amazing! 20 years later, its not any different. Just the attitudes change, there is still the belief that wherever you are from is correct. I have heard people in the city spread bold faced lies about my home town. I also know people in my town who think anyone from the city is an idiot. Same shit, different beliefs. This is in a 500 km distance in the same province. There is over 9,980,000 sq kms of land in this nation! Sticking to my original problem that the system is broken and the East has too much power, think about the implications for farmer Frank in Onehorse Saskatchewan. He and all his neighbors voted for Cory Conservative. IN fact everyone West of Ontario voted for Cory. In the most insane landslide in history they got every single vote cast. winning all 107 seats. BUT Leo Liberal won 169 seats East of Ontario. Somehow The Bloc Q, the NDP and the Greens split the 62 left over. Frank is Fucked. Leo Liberal well he really wants to be woke and is all about the environment. Cows produce too much gas. The massive farm equipment isn't good either. Oh and Oliver Oilman working in Fort Mac is screwed as well. The Oil sands are the devil according to Leos Toronto base. Leo is going to fuck Frank and Oliver to keep his base happy. I ask is that right? I 100% support Alberta oil and I am not about to even get started on transfer payments, what I simply ask is should someone with 0 knowledge or interest 3,780 kms away have control over that industry. I can do it backwards as well. Should me in Alberta be able to tell someone in Quebec what they should do or how they should live? I have no clue about their lives, so should I dictate it? Again I am digressing but on top of the 1 vote isn't 100% true, what is good for one part of our massive nation isn't always good for the others and parties will typically play to their support..... I am not blaming Cons or Libs BUT it really seems like EVERYONE forgets how big we actually are and that we need to take into account for other areas with very different attitudes and lives.

My solution? Oh you thought one of them was coming, not really. But I can take a crack at it. The senate is a joke. You could reform that. Keep our Parliament. Make the senate useful, make it a second body that actually matters, rather than a rubber stamp. Make it voted in by popular vote. The issue becomes it is just going to get jammed up. The entire process will become bunged up and nothing will happen. OR abolish the whole party system! People vote simply for the local person they feel is best for them. That would be ideal BUT then you get the rep of the rich. You know people with money are going to push a candidate that best looks out for them and with mass media that is who you will see and vote for. I would love to see parties disappear but I think they are a nessacary evil. The other option is popular vote. HOWEVER this just ties hands again. A quick search and 1984 was the last time a party won a majority in the popular vote. Part of me likes minority governments. It makes parties actually work together, which in my opinion is usually better for everyone overall. HOWEVER it very much weakens the government. You will see more elections, more deals to get something passed which may involve compromises not everyone likes. I realize I am some what contradicting myself. I do like seeing people work together for everyone's benefit HOWEVER that in itself can lead to people doing things that their support doesn't agree with... It is a double edged blade. So we are back at my original statement. I don't have a solution. I am sure better men than me have wracked their brains on this. I still agree with democracy I just feel in a nation like ours certain things should be fixed because clearly certain things are broken.

Some elections I have ranted and raved who to vote for and who I support and why they are the best. I am not going to this year. I don't support Justin "Big Trudy" That is for sure. How many times can he be found in violation of ethics but still be supported? I can ALMOST understand how he beat Harper. For some reason beyond my understanding Harper was "Hitler" to many and a fresh faced JT took him out. Fine, make sense. Since then he has pledged over $10 BILLION dollar to programs out of Canada. Yes some things are great to do and there is value in helping humanity out. However that much $$$ is crazy. Money to fix water in other nations, while promising to make rez water drinkable but not doing it... $2.65 Billion to climate change? Sure the world could use action on climate change but $2.65 BILLION? Think of how much CERB that could have covered! Instead Cerb will be covered by your tax dollars for working during the pandemic. Oh and keep in mind Canadas carbon foot print really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. As long as nations like China and USA keep up carbon our footprint is literally a single rain drop in a lake. We are watching the horror in Afghanistan (Bidens fault but we aren't going there) ole JT paid Omar  Khadr a convicted terrorist $10 mill.... The "gun control" they have tried to implement after a tragedy is useless and only goes after law abiding gun owners, who aren't the ones out committing gun crimes!!! He is useless and so is his party. Erin O'Toole is barely better, he is a slightly more right leaning JT in a powder blue suit. NDP would be great in a fantasy world where money grew on trees.... We literally are at the same point the States were with Biden and Trump. NO ONE to vote for.....

Vaccince passports. We won't have them.... Lies.  Well I guess not lies, clever word play..... We don't have them BUT we need proof of vaccine to go places. The flames who no one wants to see anyways, require them. The Oilers who will just let you down in the playoffs require it. The Starlight room requires it to go see shows and I am assuming if Oilers require it concerts there will as well. The Elks make you have them BUT I mean they caved to change their name so who could respect them anyways. Also Ratchet and her cronies are now pushing for it. So no we don't need passports just proof its done. Here is the thing, that's fine with me I am fully vaxxed but I don't agree with this. The simple fact is much more fatal diseases people don't get vaxxed for and they are free to roam the world. You could be sitting beside one at the next Oilers game you go to... But no one bats an eye at that. It is their right because it is their body but not this time with covid...? I don't want to go all Qanon here but how is we get this virus, we see bodies piling up on the news then we get a magic half cure??? Like we are already talking about boosters forever? Don't we already call that the flu shot? The terrifying thing is the world is making it mandatory. No you don't have to have it to live. You can still go to the grocery store, to retail, to get the basics of life BUT to go anywhere you want to go and enjoy life it is mandatory? That isn't right in my book when you let other deadly diseases roam free. See my earlier blog on Ezekiel Stephan or just google it yourself. I can bend slightly here, if you are in health care ya I guess you should have to have it. Your going to be in contact likely with it... Although if people in health care don't want it, it does make you wonder why. I am not going into it but I will say I 100% do not support passports and shit on this. Also moving forward I will do my best to ONLY do business with companies not being fucking dumb.

I had SO MUCH more to say. I don't support mail in votes. IF we are healthy enough as a society to campaign and travel like that we should be walking in to vote. People argue "OH credit cards and other things get mailed" Yes they do and THEN most of them you have to go confirm! Are you going to mail in your vote and then have someone call to double check it is the vote wanted? I was going to get more into the parties and well more into democracy. I can't. I have 3 or 4 other blogs I wanted to work on before i started class again that I doubt I will finish but I wanted this one up in a timely manner.