July 28, 2010
Harper’s parliamentary reforms could solve some problems—and cause others
Over the years, governments have tinkered with the parliamentary rules set by the Charlottetown conference, pictured here. The Harper government has placed a bill before Parliament that would alter the formula for how seats are redistributed following the census. It would give Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia more seats in the House of Commons; naturally, Quebec and the Atlantic Canadian provinces... [More >>]
July 22, 2010
3 alternative voting systems in use today around the world
Proportional representation comes in, well, not quite 31 flavours, but it’s a lot. There’s more than one way to elect an MP! Party List System In list systems, parties put forward a list of candidates, and voters cast a ballot for one party and its slate of individuals. Seats are allocated to parties based on percentage of the popular vote. However many seats the party gets, it fills them... [More >>]
July 20, 2010
Q&A with Judy Rebick: “We have one of the least democratic systems in the world”
Illustration by Antony Hare The recent U.K. election has raised the issue of electoral reform there, as the Liberal Democratic party made it a condition for propping up the Conservative government. This spoke to social activist Judy Rebick, who is a member of Fair Vote Canada, about her group’s campaign to bring some form of proportional representation to Canada. This: What’s wrong with our current... [More >>]
July 19, 2010
Another reason for voting reform: Parliament needs women
Canada has shockingly few female legislators. Our electoral system is broken. Voting reform could fix both problems at once. One Thursday last spring, an Angolan MP named Faustina Fernandes Inglês de Almeida Alves addressed an assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Those present—members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, professors,... [More >>]
May 31, 2010
What Stephen Harper should really do to support global maternal health
G8 Leaders meet in L'Aquila, Italy, July 8, 2009. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on January 26 that he was going to use Canada’s Group of Eight presidency to push for an annual G8 summit agenda focused on women’s and children’s health. Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis said it best when he called the announcement an act of “chutzpah.” First of all,... [More >>]
May 20, 2010
Parliamentary coalition is calling wolf on anti-Semitism
One group’s feeble witch-hunt won’t deter legitimate criticism of Israel’s actions A security guard separates pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups during York University’s Israeli Apartheid Week in February 2009. Photo by Jad yaghmour (Excalibur). It started out on a hopeful note. To kick off the second hearing of the Canadian Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, Dr. Manfred... [More >>]
April 5, 2010
How the Communist Party changed Canadian elections forever
“Working people did not cause this crisis … and we won’t pay for it!” These words were printed in bright red letters on a flyer recently published by the Communist Party of Canada as part of its effort to raise public awareness about the root causes of the global economic crisis. The flyer sat atop a pile of documents at the entrance to the Communist Party’s central office in Toronto,... [More >>]
March 22, 2010
From a Toronto basement, Citizen Lab fights tyranny online
As the internet becomes a global battlefield, a clutch of Canadian programmers are subverting oppressive regimes, aiding online dissidents, and mapping the murky new world of digital geopolitics The Dalai Lama is charged with watching over Buddhist tradition, but on March 29, 2009 The New York Times revealed a shadowy presence was secretly watching him, invisibly sending information about the religious... [More >>]
March 17, 2010
Baby boomers sit atop a ticking pension time-bomb
The notion that a failure to plan is nothing more than a plan to fail is one of the more heavily trafficked pieces of common sense, but it appears that the baby boomers are exempt from its wisdom. Instead, it will be their children who will be forced to cover the costs associated with their failure to prepare for retirement. At least, that was the message that emerged from December’s “pension summit”... [More >>]
March 8, 2010
Canadian military quietly preps for longer Afghan mission
Canada’s troops are supposed to leave Afghanistan in 2011. As the conflict drags on and the death toll rises, the Canadian government and military plan for the next decade of war—this time with Canadian jets dropping the bombs On Monday, November 3, 2008, while on patrol in Afghanistan, near the village of Wech Baghtu in the district of Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province, international and... [More >>]
