Saturday, October 13, 2007

‘No’ means ‘yes’

That’s Andrew Coyne’s reading of the meaning of the 63/37 rejection of PR/MMP in the Ontario referendum. This is typical of the PR fanatics - keep pressing for change till it happens then we’re stuck with it.

Iain Hunter has an excellent take on the PR pushers:

Who are these people, anyway?

Mostly, they're losers. Some of them are former politicians who wish they'd gone farther than they did. Some couldn't get elected dogcatcher. A lot of them are supporters of parties that have little chance of forming either the government or official opposition.

Many more are on the political fringe, among the raving loonies and raging grannies, fanatic cyclists and yogic flyers who have their special, sometimes weird, priorities that they feel everyone should share.

There are women who believe the electoral system must be changed if their sex is to gain the political influence it deserves, and aboriginals who see that system, and what it has produced, as a cause of so much of their historical hurt and present grievances.

And academics, who love tinkering with things, encourage citizens' committees to come up with proposals for a new model that will make each voter think that he or she counts more than he or she does now.

... And pundits like Coyne. And they’ll be back. Like Quebec separatists, they don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

6 comments:

Skinny Dipper said...

Isn't democracy wonderful?

John Tory and his Conservatives were defeated. Voters rejected faith-based funding of private religious schools. Do I think that the supporters of private religious school funding will go away forever? No. Why? Democracy is fluid. Supporters of faith-based funding and proportional representation will try again. They may propose the same thing again or make amendments to their proposals.

I did vote for MMP in Ontario's referendum; I'll be supporting STV for British Columbia. I support proportional representation because I want my vote to count for something and I want to have meaningful representation in Ontario's legislature and the federal House of Commons.

I have to take public transit these days because my yogic carpet is being repaired at Canadian Tire. I must be one of the losers who supports proportional representation because I voted for Harper's Conservatives in the last federal election. Unfortunately, no Conservative MP represents me in Toronto.

Greg said...

If those who voted for MMP are losers at 37% what does that make voters for the PCs?

Anonymous said...

Government.

Anonymous said...

Coyne ignores the 63% of 52% who voted against MMP..!
Coyne's idea of democracy says all ridings should be represented by first, the politician who garnered the most votes, but also the
second and third place finishers as well, afterall, extreme political viewpoints aren't extreme, they're JUST different.

MMP is affirmitive action for politicians with distastefull policies...politicians, who can't sell their policies to main-stream voters, like the NDP, the Communist Party, the Skin Head Party, the Anti-Gay Party, the Save-The-Whales Party, the Anti-Abortion Party..etc..etc..
If any of the above mentioned parties can garner 3% of 52%..then
..according to Coyne..all deserve a VOICE in parliment..!

One more time...
Thats NOT DEMOCRACY.

Sorry for your loss skinny dipper...but the truth is..
You ARE represented by the MPP who won your riding, if after four years you are still unhappy with his/her representation of you..
well..get involved, organize, mount a challenge...it is your right.!

That IS DEMOCRACY....!

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to coming up with sensible policies on issues that would make a voter turn to your direction.

NDP - 75 years has not gotten the confidence of Canadians to become the Federal government.

I think they should earn their vote by convincing people with good policies and viewpoints - not given by MMP.

JR said...

Comments noted and appreciated.

William, Excellent response to 'skinny'. 'Skinny' thinks, like most PR pushers, that unless his candidate wins a seat, his vote was somehow "wasted" - every kid in the game deserves a trophy no matter how badly their side performs.