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Elections

How to rehabilitate the NDP

James LaxerWebsite

With its exclusive fixation on winning more seats, the NDP has sacrificed the opportunity to build a truly progressive movement. On the 75th anniversary of the CCF, James Laxer argues that to save the present, we need to remember the past [This article was originally published in the July-August 2008 issue of This Magazine. We’ve […] More »
July-August 2009

How the Green Party is skewing Canadian elections

Bruce M. Hicks

Another B.C. election has passed, and the Liberals under Premier Gordon Campbell were able to hold on to power, but it was hard to tell at times which party stood where on the issues and the political spectrum. The environment was a central issue in this election, but it played out in a way that […] More »
May-June 2009

Meet Ralph Nader’s secret (Canadian) weapon: Toby Heaps

Jessica Leigh Johnston

How Canada’s Rollerblading, CEO-hugging, cartel-busting activist-entrepreneur became Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign manager (and why he did it when there was zero chance of winning) Junue Millan is getting agitated. It’s a hot day in May 2008, and Millan, an organizer on Ralph Nader’s quixotic presidential campaign, paces a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk. I’m sitting in […] More »
March-April 2009

Baffled at the Ballot Box

Bruce M. Hicks

In 1864, Thomas Hare argued at the Association Internationale pour le Progrès des Sciences Sociales meeting in Amsterdam that proportional representation — in which parliamentary seats are awarded based on political parties’ share of the popular vote — was a much fairer system than the “single member plurality” system being used in his home country […] More »
March-April 2009

Strong Feelings On: Proportional Representation

Jesse Kinos-Goodin

We’re loving Fair Vote Canada… The brainchild of three concerned citizens, Fair Vote Canada is devoted to reforming Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system. Formed in 2000, it currently has members in every province from across the political spectrum, more than 2,000 dues-paying members and a contact list of 10,000 people. FVC’s ultimate goal, explains Larry Gordon, […] More »
September-October 2004

“Progressive Canadian Party” piggybacks on the PC Party’s name

Julia Williams

Despite Stephen Harper’s best intentions, the PC Party is far from dead—it’s alive and coveting the right-wing vote. In fact, in this past election, 16 candidates across the country battled Harper’s new Conservatives for Tory support under the PC Party banner. It was just like old times—sort of. Turns out, this PC is not like […] More »
September-October 2004

Updated elections fundraising rules are still full of loopholes

Aaron Freeman

OTTAWA REPORT More »
September-October 2004

Layton’s last hurrah

Annette Bourdeau

The charismatic NDP leader fell far short of an unqualified electoral triumph. But as kingmaker to the minority Liberals, Jack Layton wields enormous power. And that could be the party’s salvation— or his personal downfall More »