tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179099932024-03-06T23:28:59.564-08:00CreeksideAlisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.comBlogger2224125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-79336709012722974542017-06-29T09:15:00.001-07:002017-06-29T21:18:14.306-07:00Coyne : You gotta give them an F- on this.<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TFLv7ELic9c" width="560"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Transcript of Coyne interview on Trudeau's broken promise of electoral reform, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Coyne, who voted Liberal in the 2011 election: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"You gotta give them an F- on this. There could not have been a more unequivocal promise in that election platform among all those other promises but this one was in black letters designed to be believed. There's a reason they put it in the platform - it was to try to attract particularly NDP and Green leaning voters - and it was unequivocal this will be the last election that we'll have under the first-past-the-post system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And they got into it and because they didn't like where the debate was going - perhaps they weren't going to get their preferred system out of it or what ever reason - they pulled the plug and just frankly walked away from the promise. Now the PM was good enough to admit that this was what they were doing, but he was rather ungracious in blaming Canadians. He said 'Well you people haven't come to a consensus on this." Well you don't get consensus without somebody exercising some leadership. If we just sat around and waited for consensus on free trade or on medicare or on any of these other big things we've done in the country, we'd never have done them. So I thought it was a little disingenuous of him to pretend that this was some problem not of his doing and clearly they could have done it, they could do it even today if they were of a mind to -they just chose not to."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Andrew Coyne's written comments below the interview are to be found here : </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://nationalpost.com/opinion/andrew-coyne-trudeaus-petulant-tone-deaf-performance-a-remarkable-milestone/wcm/12ac58a7-fcad-4c26-9a99-239d62cb38a2" target="_blank">Andrew Coyne: Trudeau's petulant, tone-deaf performance a remarkable milestone</a> </span><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> "Until this week I don’t think any of us quite fathomed just how cynical Justin Trudeau could be"</i><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-1756881110664324232017-06-01T19:30:00.000-07:002017-06-01T21:31:07.798-07:00Liberal MPs who voted NO to electoral reform May 31 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmpYvQ-L1fzrLSP3OVGygZ00KLympw__fyOer_1PlgsYxqAA9roKe4QqGgcAin6qRSvdlt3LsKGONubaZnqzz3mqKsQiJ-y5COfdcsZpRaZbBrSQEOiSLml5ePT_vE2lUs8rGTgA/s1600/Screen+shot+2017-06-01+at+7.21.24+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1049" data-original-width="1291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmpYvQ-L1fzrLSP3OVGygZ00KLympw__fyOer_1PlgsYxqAA9roKe4QqGgcAin6qRSvdlt3LsKGONubaZnqzz3mqKsQiJ-y5COfdcsZpRaZbBrSQEOiSLml5ePT_vE2lUs8rGTgA/s1600/Screen+shot+2017-06-01+at+7.21.24+PM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">h/t Anita Nickerson for above graphic </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was a bid by NDP Nathan Cullen to </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">put pressure on Trudeau to put electoral reform back on the table.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All Liberals but two, and the ones listed below who didn't vote, voted NO to accepting the final ERRE report, including the Liberal MPs on the ERRE committee. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The NDP, Bloc, CPC, and Green voted in favour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/31/liberal-electoral-reform-pledge-ndp-vote_n_16900086.html" target="_blank">Two Liberals who kept their promise</a>, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "century" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/beynate">@beynate</a> and Sean Casey <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanCaseyLPC">@SeanCaseyLPC</a> , deserve our thanks.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/votes/42/1/290/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vote details</span> </a>:<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "That the Third Report of the <a href="https://apps.ourcommons.ca/ParlDataWidgets/en/organization/21835">Special Committee on Electoral Reform</a>, presented on Thursday, December 1, 2016, be concurred in."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/ERRE/report-3/page-408" target="_blank">ERRE Report</a> in question.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">21 Liberal MPs did not vote : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4 consrvatives did not vote:<br />Mel Arnold North - Okanagan — Shuswap<br />Blaine Calkins - Red Deer — Lacombe<br />Ed Fast ~ Conservative - Abbotsford<br />Randy Hoback - Conservative ~ Prince Albert </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5 NDP did not vote:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Niki Ashton - Churchill — Keewatinook Aski<br />Fin Donnelly - Port Moody — Coquitlam<br />Peter Julian - New Westminster — Burnaby</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bloc Rheal Fortin and Independent Hunter Tantoo also did not vote.</span></div>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-54888967670835892122017-02-15T23:54:00.000-08:002017-02-16T00:15:49.384-08:00So this was a *free vote* then, was it?<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the Liberal Party Platform:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For members of the Liberal Caucus, all votes will be <b>free votes with the exception of:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>• those that implement the Liberal electoral platform;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">• traditional confidence matters, like the budget; and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">• those that address our shared values and the protections guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unless you'd like to argue that *not* implementing anything *is* the Liberal electoral platform.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So which argument from Trudeau was so compelling that all <a href="https://openparliament.ca/votes/42-1/194/" target="_blank">173 Liberal members in the HoC voted No</a>? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first one where we could not have electoral reform because there was no consensus among Canadians? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or the second one where we could not have electoral reform because there was too much consensus for an electoral reform you didn't like because</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a party like the one which just held power for the last 10 years might win a couple of seats?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which argument really sold all 173 of you to vote NO and then send out letters explaining how really really disappointed you all were with the way things turned out?</span></div>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-41818008067090039582017-02-13T14:40:00.001-08:002017-02-13T14:40:13.825-08:00See, first-past-the-post is working again now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In June 2015 the Liberal Party released a position paper :</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Justin Trudeau took that campaign promise on the road.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the time the Liberals were 3rd in the polls :</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NDP - 32.6% CPC - 28.6% LPC - <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px;">26.3%</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Liberal majority now rests on 43 MPs whose margin of victory is less than 5%.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">Before the election <a href="http://www.fairvote.ca/" target="_blank">Fair Vote Canada</a> asked all MPs to pledge that campaign promise. NDP did because it is part of party policy; CPC did not because it is not.</span></div>
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<span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following list of Liberal MPs, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">some of whom campaigned aggressively on that issue, answered</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ‘Yes’ when asked before the election if they feel :</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cabinet ministers in bold: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John Aldag Cloverdale-Langley City, B.C. 10.7</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Terry Beech Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C. 6.5</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ken Hardie Fleetwood-Port Kells, B.C. 17.6</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Joyce Murray Vancouver-Quadra, B.C. 32.9</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Carla Qualtrough </b> Delta, B.C. 16.3</span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Harjit Sajjan </b> Vancouver-South, B.C. 14.9</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jonathan Wilkinson North Vancouver, B.C. 29.8 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jody Wilson-Raybould</b> Vancouver-Granville, B.C. 17.0</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ontario</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Omar Alghabra Mississauga, Ont. 21.1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leon Alleslev Aurora-Richmond Hill, Ont. 2.1</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shaun Chen Scarborough North, Ont. 20.8</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neil Ellis Bay of Quinte, Ont. 16.4</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nathaniel Erskine Smith Beaches-East York, Ont. 18.6</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karina Gould </b> Burlington, Ont. 3.5</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;"><b>Patty Hajdu </b> Thunder Bay-Sup North, Ont. 21.8</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">Andrew Leslie Orléans, Ont. 28.8</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lloyd Longfield Guelph, Ont. 22.8</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Karen McCrimmon Kanata-Carleton, Ont. 12.1</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David McGuinty Ottawa South, Ont. 48.5</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John McKay Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont. 33.5</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Catherine McKenna </b> Ottawa-Centre, Ont. 4.2</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maryam Monsef</b> Peterborough-Kawartha, Ont. 8.7</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jennifer O’Connell Pickering-Uxbridge, Ont. 12.1</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rob Oliphant Don Valley West, Ont. 16.2</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John Oliver Oakville, Ont. 6.9</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">Anthony Rota Nippissing-Timiskaming, Ont. 22.6</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">Kim Rudd Peterborough South, Ont. 2.9</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raj Saini Kitchener Centre, Ont. 18.4</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sonia Sidhu Brampton South, Ont. 17.1</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marwan Tabbara Kitchener South-Hespeler, Ont. 5.6</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anita Vandenbeld Ottawa West-Nepean, Ont. 25.9</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arif Virani Parkdale-High Park, Ont. 1.8</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Quebec</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Lametti LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, Que. 14.9</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alexandra Mendès Brossard-Saint-Lambert, Que. 25.7</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Greg Fergus Hull-Aylmer, Que. 19.9</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>PEI</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wayne Easter Malpeque, P.E.I. 44.5</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lawrence MacAulay</b> Cardigan, P.E.I. 48.8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bobby Morrissey Egmont, P.E.I. 20.3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Amarjeet Sohi </b> Edmonton Mill Woods, Alta. 0.1</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robert-Falcon Ouellette Winnipeg Centre, Man. 26.5</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jim Carr </b> Winnipeg South Centre, Man. 31.5</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matt DeCourcey Fredericton, N.B. 20.9</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">Darrell Samson Sackville-Chezzetcook, N.S. 13.6</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ironically, it is first-past-the-post that allows these MPs to now ignore that campaign promise.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">h/t Anita Nickerson and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Kelly Carmichael at FairVote for poster and stats respectively.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hill Times : <a href="http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/02/13/liberals-say-electoral-reform-wont-main-issue-next-election-cause-problems/95863" target="_blank">Liberal MPs concerned about PMO’s handling of electoral reform and cash-for-access issues, say Grit sources</a></span><div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-62561366257215016112017-02-08T07:28:00.000-08:002017-02-10T00:46:17.684-08:00National Day of Action for a Democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXS6EwQtV2V5Zuot8NuFaFPDJUviWZpZhPz8ormSwZ6GU0beaWPSQ-PSXgJ1NHOGSo8u3GF1G828f9R8Da8Hd55lOSfPO6xt1sOdrQOZwXFgoV6ug8o_7CGmYlfe0zMOQo2sw6gQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2017-02-07+at+10.14.57+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXS6EwQtV2V5Zuot8NuFaFPDJUviWZpZhPz8ormSwZ6GU0beaWPSQ-PSXgJ1NHOGSo8u3GF1G828f9R8Da8Hd55lOSfPO6xt1sOdrQOZwXFgoV6ug8o_7CGmYlfe0zMOQo2sw6gQ/s640/Screen+shot+2017-02-07+at+10.14.57+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38;">NATIONAL : </span><br />
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ANTIGONISH :<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=977908325676436&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/977908325676436/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/977908325676436/</a></div>
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*CALGARY:<br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
*EDMONTON:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=1195527620565628&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1195527620565628/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/1195527620565628/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
*GUELPH:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=590534384481465&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/590534384481465/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/590534384481465/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
KINGSTON:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=252491181828723&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/252491181828723/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/252491181828723/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
MONTRÉAL :<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=1022111041266543&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1022111041266543/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/1022111041266543/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
NELSON:<br />
<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2FNelson-Rally&h=ATPpRNiqiCqQ_7UCsaKptICgy-NtFFSufeNK02_QZk_ji5AJ517eu75IN-aeOKC_PLlexorZORpWVOzbsrC9c33dx0zbgqpqke2UOAD9pElYMKWAHR61BF2cLAJyni-AThNIgttYFjk&enc=AZO32f7Pr7j4z9o5HlrQFStCmq6SRe0JWYFd8bmK0-bEdg8lJS0gTPQuxyA1QjzwljjxuE6-dhhbDBiToCdoAo9k_y7q0_JmvrRKdQS5QgTYEGOaXRLxWXhtrpHpJoRcOIEW5JJVTdbVz64VlUuYQAwe1yZEvejoCJkzljX-d4u5AFgNuKkJhLf3O4wpX3sK0G0IzfsJ8xs2zglkG0ocrZ37&s=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/Nelson-Rally</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
ORILLIA:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=361765157513349&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/361765157513349/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/361765157513349/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
OTTAWA:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=459836840807249&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/459836840807249/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/459836840807249/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
TORONTO:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=1406689206008564&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1406689206008564/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/1406689206008564/</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">
ST JOHN’S:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=283647058718248&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/283647058718248/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/283647058718248/</a></div>
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VICTORIA:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=431527190572187&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/431527190572187/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/431527190572187/</a></div>
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*WOLFVILLE:<br />
<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=1398537953513313&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1398537953513313/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/1398537953513313/</a></div>
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*WATERLOO REGION (Kitchener)<a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=1371976016188409&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1371976016188409/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/1371976016188409/</a></div>
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February 26, 2017 / le 26 février 2017<br />
VANCOUVER: <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/event.php?id=232194567241043&extragetparams=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/232194567241043/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/events/232194567241043/</a></div>
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<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_2u" style="background-color: white; text-indent: 0px;">
<div style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.38; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38;">And for all you non-facebookies, : </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c9AR6iLPH_zqH8N81iBhaqpeZJ5fkNlH-GbWIqpXVF8/edit</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.38; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.38; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">and : </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iFymcYgyrU14QjyhOyewwLq1X0C6gwmg0hs5FcSVHj0/edit</span></span><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-23088979379155037852017-02-02T05:14:00.001-08:002017-02-04T01:06:24.757-08:00The Emperor has no shirt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, after sending out his new rookie Minister of Democratic Institutions to deliver the news his <a href="https://www.pressprogress.ca/justin_trudeau_officially_breaks_promise_to_reform_canada_electoral_system" target="_blank">electoral reform promise was officially dead</a> , </span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/867785795892/" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Justin Trudeau stood in the HoC and said</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "As people in this House know, I have long preferred preferential ballot..."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes. Here he is in 2014 explaining that preference at length. Jump to the 24:09 mark.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Excerpted : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"First of all on first-past-the-post, you’re absolutely right that it doesn’t matter if someone gets 31 percent of the vote, and the other parties only get you know 26 and 20 percent, and it’s all divided up, then they get to represent one 100 percent of the community, and that’s why I entirely agree that it has to move beyond first past the post.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“But how we do that is very important. I personally and the Liberal Party has adopted a format of a preferential ballot, where the person who would be elected gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the community, so they represent the majority of the community.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think that a ranked ballot, a preferential ballot, is a strong way of changing our electoral system that I’ve been pushing and I’ve committed to look at once we form government.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The problem with preferential or ranked ballot, also known as Alternative Vote, is that it's the only electoral system worse for voters than what we have now. As the second party of choice for supporters of the Cons, NDP, and Greens, the Liberal Party would be the obvious benefactor of a ranked ballot in a single member riding and would likely form the government in perpetuity. This point was driven home by expert after expert to the ERRE committee, some 88% of them, despite hopeful entreaties by the Liberal MPs to the 4% of experts they could cobble together in support of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We had some earlier inkling the choice would be between preferential ballot or nothing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On December 1 2016 after Monsef's math meltdown, the four Liberal MPs on the ERRE committee announced at their presser that they believed any change to our electoral system would be too "radical". Liberal Chair Francis Scarpaleggia explained :</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Perhaps if we chose preferential ranked ballot </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we could do that tomorrow. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes, the PM made that commitment but a lot of people thought he was talking about a ranked ballot. You could do a ranked ballot like that.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> [Snaps fingers] Nobody wants ranked ballot, so what does that leave us?" </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apparently nothing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wo weeks later on December 13 2016</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, an <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/HouseChamberBusiness/ChamberVoteDetail.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&FltrParl=42&FltrSes=1&Vote=177" target="_blank">ERRE motion was up for a vote </a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/HouseChamberBusiness/ChamberVoteDetail.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&FltrParl=42&FltrSes=1&Vote=177" target="_blank">in the House</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. Approved by Scarpaleggia, it proposed to add the committee's own previous electoral reform </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e-consultation, which included specific questions on voting systems preferences including proportional representation,</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> on to </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Liberals absurdly vague and misdirecting MyDemocracy </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">VoxPops </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">quiz : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8627245">That</a>, in relation to the questions on democratic values that the Minister of Democratic Institution intends to make available for Canadians' response on the websitemydemocracy.ca, the Committee encourages the Minister to reproduce and include in its entirety the questions within this Committee's e-consultation survey, either as a replacement for the other planned questions, or in addition to any other questions that the Minister wishes to include; </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Five minutes later, <a href="https://openparliament.ca/votes/42-1/177/">all 173 Liberal MPs in the House had unanimously voted it down</a>, including the four Liberals on the ERRE committee - Ruby Sahota, John Aldag, Matt DeCourcey, and Sherry Romanado, plus the Liberal Chair Francis Scarpaleggia - while the Cons, NDP, Bloc, and Green all voted in favour.<br />Final vote : 173 No to 131 Yea. Justin Trudeau was not present.<br /><br />Yet out on the hustings the past few weeks, he continued to reassure us that he had stated in 2015 that "our electoral system is broken", alongside a promise to make that election the last one under First Past the Post, and he was fully committed to keeping that promise.<br /><br />So it looks like this was just a vote-grabbing campaign promise borrowed from the NDP and Green platforms to outflank them when the Libs were the third party in the House. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vote strategically for us this one last time, they said, and we'll make sure you never have to vote strategically again. Desperate to ditch Harper and excited at the prospect of an end to cynical party politics, Canadians did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the Liberals got a majority in 2015, it looked like they could both keep that promise and control of parliament as long as electoral reform was restricted to their preferred preferential or ranked ballot option, but when that was no longer a credible choice, they scuttled the whole thing.<br /><br />I wonder if they'll promise it all over again in 2019. This page below is still up on the Liberal Party website.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Excellent satire piece from Andrew Coyne: <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/andrew-coyne-its-not-the-liberals-fault-for-lying-about-electoral-reform-its-yours-for-believing-them">It’s not the Liberals’ fault for lying about electoral reform, it’s yours for believing them.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://globalnews.ca/video/3224307/liberals-abandoned-electoral-reform-not-sitting-well-with-opposition" target="_blank">Liberal’s abandoned electoral reform</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/02/03/liberals-electoral-reform-alt-right-fears_n_14603884.html" target="_blank">Fears Of Alt-Right, Divisive Referendum Behind Liberal Electoral Reform Reversal: Insiders</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And congrats to Liberal ERRE committee obstructionists Matt DeCourcey and Sherry Romanado on your recent appointments as parliamentary secretaries at an additional $16,800 a year.</span><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-91979503252586899692017-01-30T17:06:00.000-08:002017-01-30T17:49:18.075-08:00Kellie Leitch and friends, unplugged, on the Quebec Mosque Shooting<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ms Leitch on Facebook, 10 hours ago : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Last night people in Quebec City were murdered as they prayed. This outrageous act of violence is an attack not just on those gathered in a house of worship but on the very fabric of Canadian society, on the values of freedom and tolerance. There is no excuse and no justification for this terrorist attack. I condemn the act, the people who carried it out, and any who might try to justify, rationalize, or support it unreservedly and in the harshest possible terms."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And the responses to that post from her Friends : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><i>Shane St-Croix </i>Justin Trudeau is responsible for this attack as Canadians are starting to reap the fruit of his determination to turn Canada into an Islamic state. The chickens of 'un-vetted' Canadian diversity have come home to roost. There is blood on the hands of everyone that voted for Trudeau.<br /><br /><i>Dan Bjorklund</i> It was those peaceful motherfuckers that turdeau and the rest of you idiots want to bring in..it wasnt some local white guys.<br /><br /><i>Trevor Sydorenko</i> Considering they have 2 people in custody.. and they arent releasing names.. im going to go with "Coulters Law" on this one.<br /><br /><i>Kevin Hackett</i> This was likely an 'inside job' to inflame the anti Muslim narrative being forced upon us by Trudeau & State media CBC. Sadly, we will likely never know the truth due to the hyper Political Correctness environment we're surrounded by ! Do not allow them to soften your Principled positions Kellie Leitch !<br /><br /><i>Lyn Wood </i>Trudeau is relocating the Muslim wars here. Why do we need to be tolerant of that? Our politicians are making our Canada dangerous with their 'tolerance'. Close our borders. Bring in Christians. What is wrong with Christians from Iceland, Poland, Australia......? No common sense left anywhere.<br /><br /><i>Tim Johnson</i> I wonder how trudeau is gonna spin this if these attackers were muslims themselves ?<br /><br /><i>Duane Mousseau </i>Some are assuming that this was committed by Christians. Strange how when other acts of terror took place we had to wait and see and were very careful not to imply that it was done by Muslims. Even after the officials were tootsie footing around actually saying it was an act of terror. I believe there is some evidence here that the perpetrators were Muslims and they recently immigrated here from Morocco. Muslims kill Muslims and would love to leave evidence that a Christian did it of course. <br /><br /><i>Thomas Clayton </i>Maybe they were Jews who converted to Islam and then back again & therefore they were all supposed to be killed as per the 84th Hadith - dealing with Apostates. Sure hope Justin Trudeau never converts back to Catholicism because his punishment would be death.<br /><br /><i>Cecil Crocker</i> And it is going to get worst if Trudeau don't stop this bringing is Muslim ...he is doing this for to get more votes ..Trudeau don't care about Canadians ....We are not allow to say our Lord Paryer in school .PUT THE MUSLIM GOT THERE OWN ROOM FOR PRAYERS ...SO HOW COME WE CAN'T SAY OUR LORD PEYERS IN SCHOOL ....TRUDEAU HAVE TO GO ...CANADA IS GONE SO HE HAVE TO GO .<br /><br /><i>John Wood </i>Muslims killing Muslims then others, we must elect Leitch for conservative party leader and prime minister to stop these horrendous Muslim nonsense actions.<br /><br /><i>Tyler Dockendorff </i>Why don't you acknowledge that they were muslim? Suspicious.<br /><br /><i>Marty Smith</i> Why aren't they releasing names. I will bet there not Tim Smith, Jacques lacriox.<br /><br /><i>Penny Labrecque</i> One of the shooters is apparently named mahammed Khadir???<br /><br /><i>David Pacho </i>Just send them all back where they came from, funny how all problems start when these animals are involved.<br /><br /><i>Kym Mychelle</i> KellieLeitch this is a false flag and thank "GOD" we still have common sense to know what truth is<br /><br /><i>William Wolfgang-Steven Litz</i> It was Muslim refugees that killed these people.<br />CBC is blaming trump and white racism...don't believe the fake news.</span><br />
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<strong style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">LaPresse : Published January 30, 2017 at 15:52 Auto-translate</strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/attentat-a-quebec/201701/30/01-5064556-mohamed-belkhadir-pour-eux-quelquun-qui-fuit-cest-un-suspect.php" target="_blank">Mohamed Belkhadir: "For them, someone who flees is a suspect"</a></b></span></div>
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<span class="">Mohamed Belkhadir, the engineering student arrested by mistake in the wake of the terrorist attack at the mosque in Sainte-Foy, was helping the victims when he was wrongly mistaken for a suspect.</span></div>
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Freshly returned home, the young man of 29 years was interviewed in <em>La Presse</em> to indicate it does not want all the police of Quebec, who was "very nice" with him.</div>
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"I went in to try to give first aid to my friend on the ground, and I saw someone with a weapon. I did not know that he was a policeman, I thought he was coming back to shoot. So I fled outside, on the parking side, "he said.</div>
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"I understand, I respect that they caught me. They saw me flee, they thought I was suspicious, that's normal. For them, someone who flees is a suspect, "he insists.</div>
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<span class="">The student of Moroccan origin had attended the prayer on Sunday evening, then went out to clear the stairs of the mosque.</span>Soon after, he heard several shots, for 15 to 20 seconds, he said.</div>
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<span class="">He entered, called 9-1-1, gave the address to the emergency services, and then used his coat to warm a wounded man on the ground. </span><span class="">It was then that he panicked when a policeman came in</span></div>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-83319398305631296492016-12-16T19:58:00.001-08:002016-12-17T01:05:03.092-08:00JT's "fun little questionnaire" <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">VoxPopLabs, the same folks who brought you <a href="http://www.votecompass.com/">Vote Compass</a>, has taken something of a beating in public opinion for their electoral reform quiz <a href="http://mydemocracy.ca/">mydemocracy.ca</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Originally introduced by <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/12/02/trudeau-insists-election-reform-still-on-table.html" target="_blank">Justin Trudeau </a>as "a fun little questionnaire that gets into values rather than models", <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/andrew-coyne-biggest-problem-with-mydemocracy-survey-is-the-questions" target="_blank">Andrew Coyne</a> referred to it as "a dippy pop quiz or botched push-poll", </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/12/05/liberals-electoral-reform-online-survey-monsef_n_13440860.html" target="_blank">s</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/12/05/liberals-electoral-reform-online-survey-monsef_n_13440860.html" target="_blank">oundly mocked </a>for the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">obvious slant of the questions with "</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two thirds of the “values” questions and over half of those probing respondents’ “preferences” having nothing to do with electoral reform". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or as I like to call it, a 'what kind of animal are you?' quiz.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Asked about this </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on CBC, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mark Holland was at pains to point out that the government didn't pick the questions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No, but you did choose the parameter of the questions; VoxPops merely did the job you asked them to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the <a href="https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-CY-019-71477" target="_blank">government tender awarding the contract to VoxPopLabs in September</a> :</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"The key tasks include:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Provide a draft of questions for review by the Project Authority;"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Project Authority here is presumably the Privy Council Office, described in the bid as the "End user entity".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Conduct a robust scientific survey in advance of the launch of the interactive online application in order to identify key themes and develop classifications based on responses;</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... determine segments and develop narratives for each cluster based on the profiles that emerge from the survey;</span> </blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-making-of-mydemocracy-ca-the-liberals-electoral-reform-survey/">VoxPopLabs </a><a href="http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-making-of-mydemocracy-ca-the-liberals-electoral-reform-survey/">says </a>they developed a large survey, field-tested it, and then asked a panel of 3,000 Canadians "the remaining questions and used their responses to generate a cluster analysis".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is where those five much-mocked archetype categories come from. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Develop a robust model ... </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to instantaneously classify participants to the interactive online digital consultation platform </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">into segments uncovered in the survey</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; line-height: 16.08px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ok, so your answers slot you into one </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of the five predetermined archetype categories.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; line-height: 16.08px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; line-height: 16.08px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y complaint with the above approach is that the archetypes were built on different questions asked than those asked in the final survey, and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that of the five, there is no category for people who are both in favour of some version of proportional representation but against online voting. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And did we really need five direct questions about online voting and mandatory voting but none on </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">proportional representation?</span><br />
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<pre><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what will the Project Authority learn from all this?</span></pre>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Provide categories of customized user feedback and data visualization for review by the Project Authority;</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is, I grant you, more scientific than </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the five categories of Heathers and Zoes and Dougies and Steves and Eunices </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that conservative strategist <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=4o_AAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=%22Patrick+muttart%22+heather++zoe+voters&source=bl&ots=cXyMhcCyyO&sig=-XxvxfpvnCEPY5__fIkLQ5XtZ4o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP0u7J_fnQAhVV9WMKHRkyBRYQ6AEIOjAF#v=onepage&q=%22Patrick%20muttart%22%20heather%20%20zoe%20voters&f=false" target="_blank">Patrick Muttart </a>categorized Canadians into for Stephen Harper back in 2005, but I don't see it getting us any closer to electoral reform. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not completing the survey will result in a repeat of the ERRE Liberal MPs' contention that no one is interested. However if you do the survey, game the questions by figuring out which ones give a glimmer of support to the idea of proportional representation and mark them "strongly agree", you possibly run the risk of being disqualified because, as the ERRE Liberals also complained, everyone who showed up to townhalls or answered the much superior ERRE survey was self-selective and already had an opinion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Filling in this survey is quite a bit like strategic voting, a reason many of us want rid of FPtP in the first place. <a href="http://mycanadiandemocracy.ca/" target="_blank">FairVote has provided a guide to answering it.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fun fact : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">VoxPopLabs mydemocracy survey cost <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-making-of-mydemocracy-ca-the-liberals-electoral-reform-survey/" target="_blank">$326K.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The entire budget for the now disbanded ERRE committee, their five months of witness testimony, their travels across Canada, and their online survey on electoral reform systems, was <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8384031" target="_blank">$300K.</a></span><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-31759779523670587752016-12-14T01:29:00.000-08:002016-12-14T11:39:25.991-08:00BC gov letter on Site C<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back in August, BC Hydro applied for a "Licence of Occupation" </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">to log crown land </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">above the Site C dam - land that had been </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">previously slated for provincial park status.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The only public notice I could find about it was in the <i>Alaska Highway News</i> - and in </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">woodbusiness.ca, which noted that the government ad in the back of <i>Alaska Highway News </i>did not even mention Site C.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/09/site-c-licence-of-occupation.html" target="_blank">I ran into the deadline for public input quite by accident in September</a> three days before it </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">was closing.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I contacted all the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">news media, environmental watchdogs, Site C opponents, and MPs</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> I could think of - to no avail, despite considerable signal boost from facebookies and the twitterati.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The previous Tuesday, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">having recently issued permits via Transport Canada and Fisheries and Oceans to allow the Site C dam to proceed even as the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nation were challenging the previous government's approval of it in the courts, the Trudeau government told the House of Commons </span><a href="http://aptn.ca/news/2016/09/20/justice-minister-wilson-raybould-should-resign-over-site-c-says-treaty-8-chief/" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b>"it is now up to B.C. Hydro to conduct any further public consultations"</b></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">So I wrote to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, to whom BC Hydro had made the logging application, and asked how an ad in the back of <i>Alaska Highway News</i> that didn't even mention Site C qualified as public consultation. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Today, 80 days later, I received their reply.</span><br />
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Dear Alison Creekside</div>
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Thank you for your comments and concerns regarding the application for crown land use, file number 8015830 (BC Hydro). Your comments and concerns have been used in the decision making process for this application. In direct response to your specific correspondence regarding the above file, please be aware of the following information.</div>
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The decision made by government to move forward with the Site “C” Project was made December 16, 2014. Public and other stakeholder input was gathered for the period of the Environmental Assessment Process conducted by the Environmental Assessment Office beginning in January 2012. The applicant was granted an Environmental Assessment Certificate (EAC#14-02) on October 14, 2014. The Environmental Assessment was given consideration to the project level decision on December 16, 2014. The project level decision was based on many factors, including but not limited to, the public and stakeholder input, the Environmental Assessment process and all the associated studies and conditions recommended, current land status and future land status (i.e. Agriculture Land Reserve, potential parks areas and Old Growth Areas), project level management plans, environmental plans, other risk mitigation plans, geotechnical studies for slope stability and viability, and archaeological studies.</div>
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All applications for crown land use at the Licence/Permit level must be consistent with the construction schedule of the approved project level decision. All applications packages for specific area Licence/Permit for consideration by the decision maker, must contain area specific detailed management plans, area specific detailed risk avoidance and mitigation strategies for values at risk, and any other information the decision maker requests to aid in the decision making process.</div>
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At this time, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations is considering public and other stakeholder comments and concerns at the Licence/Permit specific area level. The processes used to make decisions at the Licence/Permit level are transparent and implemented using practices found in policy and law (for example, the minimum time an application must be advertised in the newspaper is legislated). In the case of this application, the advertisement period was for 14 days in the local newspaper the Alaska Highway News. Even though the time period for receiving public and stakeholder input had passed, comments and concerns continued to be received up to the date of decision for this application.</div>
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Appeals through the judicial system on the Project Decision do not interrupt the adjudication of applications for the area specific Licence/Permit. No injunctions to halt the project or the associated Licences/Permits due to recent appeals have been granted by the courts to date.</div>
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Sincerely</div>
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<br />
Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations<br />
#100, 10003-110th Avenue <br />
Fort St John, BC V1J 6M7</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today agrologist and journalist Wendy Holm reported the BC NDP sent out a pre-election survey to supporters and members of the public "to help guide the strategies of the NDP".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It did not mention Site C.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbouCU1KkynWm5YAtDkkHN_CFOHDhNZGBkhRwhFaQyze4aCShxSPv3L6lq5d9mjajz7gxyEfdq_GDuFa9XLARjLRUpf8GbvrkBlxbTcty8Ho8t04ATY921VCZg2HnpdtUAK1Tftw/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-12-14+at+1.18.58+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbouCU1KkynWm5YAtDkkHN_CFOHDhNZGBkhRwhFaQyze4aCShxSPv3L6lq5d9mjajz7gxyEfdq_GDuFa9XLARjLRUpf8GbvrkBlxbTcty8Ho8t04ATY921VCZg2HnpdtUAK1Tftw/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-12-14+at+1.18.58+AM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3g-1x8jqmizaXFkRzQzQmd5cFk/view" target="_blank">The BC NDP survey</a> : 15 questions, one of them a multiple choice of 17 issues to prioritize.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-55845697043376503282016-12-01T18:09:00.000-08:002016-12-16T13:58:28.225-08:00To the BC KM17, Your Next Career<div class="_2cuy _3dgx _2vxa" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px auto 28px; width: 700px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; white-space: pre-wrap;">... from Kim , </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">who used to blog at sistersagesmusings ....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">BC 17, Your Next Career</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear BC(LIB) MPs;</span></div>
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Your photogenic leader has just tanked your career as a politician in BC. I hope you feel ashamed and embarrassed. If that is the case, I would suggest that you strongly consider crossing the floor or resigning your post, because, clearly, you have no mandate in your constituencies.
You all know how we feel about our coast. You all know how important this ocean is to our economy. You all swept into office on promises of a new Nation to Nation relationship, how you basked in the glow of "Governments give approval, but only communities give permission". How you embraced UNDRIP and the Paris Accord. Unless you part ways with your Party leadership on this, you are liars and cheats and not fit for representing your constituents in Ottawa.
You all know that there is no world class oil spill response, ask the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella. How the Oil cleanup company is owned by the Oil Titans. How the coast guard comms system has failed many times since Harper closed the network.
I would suggest that you people start reflecting deeply on these issues, and the fact that you have just allowed massive protests to endanger our people.</div>
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I just sent this to the 17 Liberal MPs in BC.</div>
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Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca<jody .wilson-raybould="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-717-1144, 613-992-1416 </jody><br />
Harjit.Sajjan@parl.gc.ca<harjit .sajjan="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-775-5323, 613-995-7052 </harjit><br />
John.Aldag@parl.gc.ca<john .aldag="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-575-6595 , 613-992-0884 </john><br />
Terry.Beech@parl.gc.ca<terry .beech="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-718-8870, 613-992-0802 </terry><br />
Sukh.Dhaliwal@parl.gc.ca<sukh .dhaliwal="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-598-2200, 613-992-0666 </sukh><br />
hedy.fry@parl.gc.ca<hedy .fry="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-666-0135, 613-992-3213</hedy><br />
Stephen.Fuhr@parl.gc.ca<stephen .fuhr="" parl.gc.ca="">; 250-470-5075, 613-992-7006 </stephen><br />
Pam.Goldsmith-Jones@parl.gc.ca<pam .goldsmith-jones="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-913-2660, 613-947-4617 </pam><br />
Ken.Hardie@parl.gc.ca<ken .hardie="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-501-5900, 613-996-2205 </ken><br />
Ron.McKinnon@parl.gc.ca<ron .mckinnon="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-927-1080, 613-992-9650 </ron><br />
joyce.murray@parl.gc.ca<joyce .murray="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-664-9220, 613-992-2430 </joyce><br />
Joe.Peschisolido@parl.gc.ca<joe .peschisolido="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-257-2900, 613-992-1385 </joe><br />
Carla.Qualtrough@parl.gc.ca<carla .qualtrough="" parl.gc.ca="">; 778-593-4007, 613-992-2957 </carla><br />
Dan.Ruimy@parl.gc.ca<dan .ruimy="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-466-2761, 613-947-4613 </dan><br />
Randeep.Sarai@parl.gc.ca<randeep .sarai="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-589-2441, 613-992-2922 </randeep><br />
Jati.Sidhu@parl.gc.ca<jati .sidhu="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-814-5710, 613-992-1248 </jati><br />
Jonathan.Wilkinson@parl.gc.ca<jonathan .wilkinson="" parl.gc.ca="">; 604-775-6333, 613-995-1225 </jonathan><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-34837404027633205072016-11-29T16:55:00.001-08:002016-12-01T04:39:09.313-08:00Kinder Morgan pipeline spill in Burnaby 2007<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zl5QyoQwLfQ?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A 10-meter geyser of crude oil spewed from a broken Kinder Morgan pipeline in a Burnaby neighbourhood in July 2007. Eight homes were flooded and 92 were put on evacuation notice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part of the TransMountain Pipeline system, the broken pipeline was carrying crude oil from a pipeline terminal at the foot of Burnaby Mountain to a tanker-loading facility on Burrard Inlet. After four years in court, Kinder Morgan pled guilty.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Justin Trudeau's new Kinder Morgan pipeline </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">will ship 900,000 barrels of dilbit a day from Alberta through the same neighbourhood to the supertankers waiting in Burrard Inlet.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">We are currently waiting to see what piece of First Nations apparel Christy Clark will wear to her presser...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Thursday update : So what is that stuff spewing into the air? Not crude oil after all.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Nimbus Sans L, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This industry report : </span><span style="font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23.9999px;"><a href="https://www.transmountain.com/uploads/papers/1391734754-astudyoffateandbehaviourofdilutedbitumenoilsonmarinewater.pdf" target="_blank">A STUDY OF FATE AND BEHAVIOR OF DILUTED BITUMEN OILS ON MARINE WATERS</a> identifies it as <a href="http://www.crudemonitor.ca/crude.php?acr=AHS" target="_blank">Albion Heavy dilsynbit</a> containing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; white-space: pre-wrap;">t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; line-height: 22px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">oluene, pentane, butane, benzene, hydrogen sulfide ....</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">.</span></span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-22288107221573021322016-11-29T02:57:00.001-08:002016-11-29T11:56:55.533-08:00Con Senators hoisted by their own petards<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... in which Conservative Senators harangue Elections Canada CEO Marc Mayrand for answers that he is no longer able to deliver because the Con's <i>Fair Elections Act</i> removed Elections Canada's Commissioner from Elections Canada and placed him under the aegis of the Public Prosecutors Office where Mayrand is not privy to its investigations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elections Canada CEO Mayrand had barely begun giving the<a href="http://www.cpac.ca/en/senate-portal/" target="_blank"> <i>Senate </i></a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cpac.ca/en/senate-portal/" target="_blank"><i>Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs</i> </a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">his report on the last federal election when </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Chair interrupts and asks him to wrap it up because they have many questions - questions propelled, it is explained, by the particular interest of Senator Linda Frum. Oh goodie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Con Senator Daniel Lang: "Registered third parties. Can you confirm that registered political parties are not allowed to accept money from foreign donors over the course of an election?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : You have to be a Canadian citizen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : We have now seen that third parties can do much more than political parties, such as raising money from foreign interests in the U.S. and elsewhere to influence public policy and elections in Canada. This past election, registered third parties like Dogwood Initiative and LeadNow have publicly admitted that they receive foreign moneys, run campaigns, even published pushpolls under your interpretation of the act as I understand it. All they can't do is advertise over a set amount during the writ. Can you tell me was it the intention of the Act as interpreted by the Supreme Court to allow third parties to actively campaign prior to and during elections?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : Within certain limits and spending caps, third parties, provided they register if they spend more than $500, are allowed to do advertising during the campaign. That is specifically provided for in the legislation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : So a registered third party during a political campaign, except for a restricted area, can accept foreign money to help run and be involved in a campaign?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : They can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : It has come to my attention that there are a number of these third party registered organizations, who it would appear have been willfully circumventing the Elections Act or acting as a party to circumvent the Act. Can you tell us up to now how many complaints you have received from Canadians, or have you received complaints from Canadians or from political parties related to third party groups and third party advertising, and if so, how many are you actually investigating?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : Complaints would have been directed to the Commissioner of Canada's Elections who is tasked with assuring compliance with those provisions, so I would not be aware of the type of complaints the Commissioner has received. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : So this wouldn't be discussed with you? Because it seems rather strange it wouldn't be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : <i>With the separation of the offices, we can no longer have those type of discussions </i>so I am not aware of what type of feedback, comments, or complaints that the Commissioner would have received in this matter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : What I don't understand is why you wouldn't be aware this type of thing was occurring. In your report you talk about investigations, you talk about contraventions of the Elections Act ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : These are files that were referred during the election by my office, matters brought to my attention mostly by Canadians during the election - allegations that could potentially be an offence - and in that case I can refer the matter to the Commissioner. But I have no sense what the Commissioner or how he will handle those files. He will handle them according to his own protocols, and I am not aware of complaints that are directly addressed to the Commissioner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : So when are you made aware?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : Only if Canadians bring something to my attention, and if it actually raises a matter of potential offence to the Act, then I will refer it to the Commissioner. It's not a two-way communication process. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lang : So for the record you have no knowledge of what I just asked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mayrand : Not with respect to what is the Commissioner's.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I imagine that Senator Lang had forgotten all about how their party's 2006 <i>Accountability Act </i>removed Elections Canada's power to compel testimony and documents from witnesses, legislation which I'm guessing would be useful if, say, EC wanted to investigate the alleged registered third party election violations that have Senators Lang and Frum so up in arms. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The senators also seem to have forgotten that, under the pretence of combatting non-existent voter fraud by electors, the Con's <i>Fair Elections Act</i> moved Elections top cop the Commissioner out of Elections Canada and into the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, so Mayrand isn't privy</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> to its investigations and consequently can't answer or act on the Senators' questions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well played, guys. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And so it went for an hour and forty minutes with the Conservative Senators led by Linda Frum and Daniel Lang badgering Mayrand for answers and opinions about LeadNow and Dogwood Institute expenses, as well as their funding received outside the writ period and therefore outside his jurisdiction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Senator Frum was particularly exercised about "an organization in the US that is against pipelines" providing funding to third parties in Canada to hold rallies and music concerts and tell people not to vote for Harper. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She then brought up <i><a href="http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2146/index.do" target="_blank">Harper v. Canada</a></i>, the 2004 Supreme Court challenge launched by Stephen Harper as head of the <i>National Citizens Coalition. </i>He sought to strike down Canada Elections Act's</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> legal spending limits on third party advertising </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">during elections. Harper lost that case and Canada was spared much of what became <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC" target="_blank"><i>Citizens United</i> </a>five years later in the US. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not sure in Senator Frum's party shoes that I would have brought that one up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This week the Liberals repealed much of the <i>Fair Elections Act </i>but media reports that it is dead are somewhat exaggerated. The Liberals have yet to return to Elections Canada either their former independence or their investigative powers taken away under Harper. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally, several Conservative senators pressed Mayrand to agree that given the 2015 Federal Election had the highest voter turnout in years, that it must mean the <i>Fair Elections Act</i> had done its job. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Words fail me ...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-15470849065693041572016-10-31T19:22:00.004-07:002016-10-31T19:37:30.961-07:00Justin Trudeau's 16 word report on electoral reform<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Results of the public consultation on electoral reform in the Papineau riding</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YcnYfZDDCATPkZa19SV5mOlsVjCH8_hFPqbBCXK3buZm3vo0oiAOUNO5j1MQ713O2gWOkVkU7VPLvbZEszTe3vpJzAd_xwlvtCHpzbU8934aDNZMVWQHBjOpDqYFdo8ZEYD9bQ/s1600/JT+public+consultation+on+electoral+reform.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YcnYfZDDCATPkZa19SV5mOlsVjCH8_hFPqbBCXK3buZm3vo0oiAOUNO5j1MQ713O2gWOkVkU7VPLvbZEszTe3vpJzAd_xwlvtCHpzbU8934aDNZMVWQHBjOpDqYFdo8ZEYD9bQ/s1600/JT+public+consultation+on+electoral+reform.png" /></a></h3>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<i>most</i> were favourable to the idea of a proportional and mixed-proportional voting system"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Discussion of electoral reform in Canada suffered from an almost total four month legacy media blackout on </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the more than <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committees/en/ERRE/Meetings" target="_blank">40 Electoral Reform Committee meetings</a> held in </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">June through October</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">over 300 witnesses who testified at them. Ditto the cross-Canada community consultations held by the committee, individual MPs, and Minister Monsef. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That changed on October 19 when </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/482514/la-reforme-electorale-n-est-plus-garantie" target="_blank">Justin Trudeau told LeDevoir </a>that there was possibly less public appetite for electoral reform now that Harper was gone and consequently we might be getting proportionately Small Change rather than the promised Real Change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today from PostMedia : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/national/trudeau+quietly+held+town+hall+where+most+were+favour/12336022/story.html" target="_blank">Trudeau quietly held town hall where most were in favour of proportional voting system</a></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The portion at top is from the <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/WebDoc/WD8405589/Members_Reports/TrudeauJustin9463535-e.pdf" target="_blank">3-1/2 page report on that October 6th town hall</a> produced and submitted to ERRE. It was <i>one week </i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>after </i>four </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/10/electoral-reform-for-dummies-that-would.html" target="_blank">MSM opinion pieces in early October suggested Trudeau dump electoral reform altogether</a> (or at least kick it up to the 2019 election promises), but </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one week</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">before</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> his remarks to LeDevoir. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Make of that what you will.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef also came under fire last week in Victoria BC for <a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/10/monsef-very-very-sorry-she-cannot.html" target="_blank">echoing his remarks </a>on a diminishing public will for electoral reform and the difficult political realities of proceeding without public consensus for a specific system of change. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's Monsef's opening remarks to the Waterloo public consult on September 14th. Watching her here, I think she means what she says; what we don't yet know is whether the Trudeau government means what she says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J2Gm0qpdipM?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/laurelrusswurm" target="_blank">Laurel Russwurm</a> for Monsef vid. Laurel replaced an unusable bit of vid in the middle with stills but keep going - the vid comes back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-69950240759263842302016-10-28T17:10:00.000-07:002016-10-28T18:29:58.875-07:00Monsef "very very sorry" she cannot advocate for PR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfZOs92zXVo3jmO767a1WAETNZYBqvBw-b6rMRMqnt1YVmy3XlCD93ofqJSWCpcuoaklvZwm9Fg0mo11_zrWspNI5YjBK3MFO3KL7eqf4jfrZ04kjKqxFVtuS_G83OBY4ase-bQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-28+at+4.10.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfZOs92zXVo3jmO767a1WAETNZYBqvBw-b6rMRMqnt1YVmy3XlCD93ofqJSWCpcuoaklvZwm9Fg0mo11_zrWspNI5YjBK3MFO3KL7eqf4jfrZ04kjKqxFVtuS_G83OBY4ase-bQ/s400/Screen+shot+2016-10-28+at+4.10.58+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tweets like the above appeared today following Minister Monsef's Q&A at her Victoria BC electoral reform public consultation. Her remarks </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">echo those of Justin Trudeau earlier this week, giving rise to the fear that the Liberals are backtracking on implementing electoral reform and their campaign promise that 2011 would be "the last election under FPtP".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've transcribed her responses to the two relevant questions from the audience in full below so you can judge for yourself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shorter : She repeated Trudeau's recent remarks about people no longer clamouring for change under the new government, that implementing electoral reform depends on a broad consensus from Canadians and the ERRE committee, and that she's "very, very sorry" but she cannot advocate for proportional representation because 1) she has not heard PR asked for from "an overwhelming majority across the country" and 2) "political realities".. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A refugee from Iran made a heartfelt plea to Mosef, refugee to refugee as he said, to bring in proportional representation, PR, and not to water it down, to repay the debt to this country. "That will your legacy to this country." Huge applause.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Transcript of Monsef's response : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"To my Iranian-Canadian friend : I agree with you we didn't come here for the natural resources in this country; we came here so that we can be whoever we want to be; we came here so that we can have choice, and choices, and we have that because our democratic institutions have provided us with opportunities, means, and liberties. </span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So where I think your argument kind of lost me is you went from like the only way to do this is through proportional representation. In this room, there is a lot of appetite for moving towards PR. My job isn't to advocate for PR specifically; my job has been to go across the country and hear from a diverse range of perspectives. And most rooms are different - there hasn't been a consensus on any specific system. And that actually makes my job very very difficult. It puts more emphasis on the work of the committee because now they have to find the consensus that they couldn't find in the country. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's why conversations and you ranking these principles is important because maybe it's not a pure proportional system, maybe it's not MMP, maybe it's a system that's never existed, maybe it's a hybrid that makes sense for Canada. I haven't arrived at that conclusion because there is no consensus. But what I am hearing is how much Canadians cherish that local representation, how much they want a more legitimate and effective system, how important inclusion and accessibility is. These are basic pieces that are really helpful. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I can't promise you that I'll be advocating for PR because I haven't heard that from an overwhelming majority across the country. </span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But what I can promise you is that I'm hustling with my parliamentary secretary and we are advocating hard for reform, for reform that means improvement, that sets the stage for the next generation of leaders to come in and make the system better and I think that is my responsibility. And you're right I do have a great deal of debt to repay to this country - that's why I'm doing this and sometimes especially over the last month things have gotten a little bit crazy and absurd. Over the last month I have asked myself a few times - why are you doing this? You had a good job; people liked you; you got to make a difference and you got paid, you got to stay in Peterborough, evenings and weekends to yourself - what were you thinking? But it is true I have all these privileges because a lot of people have made it possible for me. I do have a significant debt to pay back and I intend to pay it back so I can get on with the rest of my life where I have maybe a bit more privacy and sanity, but I promise you that I'm doing this for the right reasons and at the end of the day, I want to make things a little bit better so more people feel involved to be a part of this process so that those silly pieces like the older woman in my riding what she had to deal with and went through - we can fix those things. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I'm looking for that consensus - I haven't seen it across the country and now I'm waiting on the committee. I can't make you a promise. I'm very very sorry." </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Question from audience : How can you possibly quell out fears about what Trudeau said about not needing a change in the election system? Those of us engaged in this process for months and months were really upset.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monsef :</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"So it's a little bit frustrating in some ways because literally since May I've been saying what the Prime Minister has been saying. We want things to be better, we want reform. We're inspired by what we're hearing from Canadians like you. But we're not going to move ahead with reform unless we have that broad support from Canadians. We have a majority, sure we could ram through whatever we want, but we're not going to do that. We heard that loud and clear at the beginning of this. The Prime Minister remains I think he said deeply committed to electoral reform, as do I. We're now going to wait for this committee to come back to us. What he said was ... these rooms, this room is full right now but I gotta tell you in most rooms across the country it hasn't been standing room only. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">People aren't clamouring for change the way they were under the former government. And I get that - people have other priorities like jobs, kids, and grandkids and house concerns and they care about things like the environment. But this does have a significant longterm impact and it does matter and like I said I'm pushing for this every day. We're finishing our tour right now hearing from Canadians who wanted to be part of this conversation. We're very serious about this and we're going to see it through. We really really hope that the Canadians that have come to us with a thoughtful consensus that they've been able to come to because we are not going to ... </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even though the Prime Minister has a preference, even though I am arriving at a preference of a specific system with certain elements, we're not going to move ahead unless we have support from Canadians. So yes we want change but we're not going to ram it through because that's just a political nightmare and anti-democratic so ..."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Audience : Didn't he say it would be the last election under FPtP?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monsef : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Yeah and I was standing behind him when he said it in Ottawa. He said he'd bring together a committee to study the issue and if conversations like this were happening in the country during the summer of last year, you can bet anything that these rooms would be packed and people would be asking and demanding for change."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Audience : "Well they might be in four years. [cheers, claps] ... </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The majority in this room did not stand up and say Yes for FPtP. ... Yeah like 6 people ... In four years it could be a very different story - that's not the way to go."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monsef : What's not the way to go?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hard to hear audience responses here : Campaign promises ... people are still hopeful .. You promised last election under FPtP ... clapping </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monsef : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"I'm not disputing that. I have a mandate to advocate and pursue and propose change. I'm not disputing that. What I'm adding here though is a reality that we're all aware of - If the Liberal Party were to say Hmmm there's no consensus among the committee, we haven't heard from all Canadians - I don't really think a referendum is a good idea but the committee might come back and say that it's the only way .... ok I know there's some scars in this room, please ... if reform does not have broad support of Canadians, we're right back in the same problem area that you just said"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Audience member : No we're not because the Liberal Party was elected on a campaign platform ... backtracking ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monsef : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Ok we're not backtracking - I'm explaining a political reality that what we said was Canadians are going to come and recommend something and then we're going to move ahead. We established the committee. We established the committee under traditional rules and people freaked out - oh these rules with the majority and the minority means you're going to ram through whatever change you want. That's not what we voted for - And so here we have this room full of people who feel like me, who feel like the Prime Minister, but that's not every room in the country and you have to take that into consideration.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So again, my commitment to you, to everyone in this room, is every day we're advocating for change."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Audience member : Please make a decision that isn't a non-decision. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monsef : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"I'm hustling every day, like 24 hours a day for change. That's my job and I'm wholeheartedly committed to it. There are political realities around it that anybody in this room given what you've experienced with electoral reforms [STV vote in BC] is ignoring - well that's not really helpful or effective. My job is to take all of that into consideration. So my promise to you is I'll be advocating for change. .. on both sides of the aisle within both chambers because we're going to need the help of Senate as well." </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Transcribed from livestream of the meeting at https://www.facebook.com/CdnDemocracy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-49288085544451420582016-10-17T06:18:00.001-07:002016-10-17T06:31:46.383-07:00The Cons mini-referendum<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This summer the Conservative Party Caucus had themselves a mini-referendum about having a referendum about electoral reform. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ERRE Committee vice-chair </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/10/referendumpster-fire.html" target="_blank">Scott Reid held a presser about it last Friday</a> and was very pleased to announce a 90.6% approval rating of 73,740 YES votes from the 81,389 returned responses. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sure, the ballot only went out to 59 ridings held by Con MPs and allowed 4 responses per household, but still - a <b>90.6% approval rating for a referendum!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When a reporter asked how many ballots were originally sent out in order to get those 81,389 back, Reid expressed regret at not having those numbers available so I'm giving him a helping hand here. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The total number of eligible electors in the 59 ridings cited is 4,613,620. I know because I added them up last night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If 81,389 ballots were returned out of 4.6 million, that's a response rate of <b>1.76%</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If 73,740 of those were YES REFERENDUM! votes, that's a <b>1.6%</b> referendum approval rating, <i>and</i> it's a 1.6% referendum approval rating in Conservative-held ridings only, a third of which are in Alberta. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have no great quarrel with the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelrusswurm/sets/72157675123880626" target="_blank">4 page CPC referendum/referendum</a> itself - the explanations and questions are about what you might expect. But when you consider that it was received </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on the heels of a flyer saying a referendum was required to </span><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/10/referendumpster-fire.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">"stop the Liberals from rigging the 2019 election"</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> in, for instance, Con MP Len Webber's riding of Calgary Confederation... </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">well, lets just say that riding's 2.2% response rate probably indicates Calgary Confederationists are not setting their hair on fire over it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The CPC Caucus submission to the Special Committee on Electoral Reform contained the following tables about their mini-ref. I added two extra columns on the far right - total number of electors in the riding and the riding response rate to the questionnaire - to give their numbers some context. I also added the names of the MPs. Click em to read em. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So there ya go, Scott - your missing numbers. You're welcome.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCH9dufHOkvLzDxXI3VYhk1RJZQr-QjdXwaERv9kvMUjJUtFmNRk4le8aWYKH-lbGkuddJY6WoL3nDGCR3zfUGwMeR1mLl508F4ijyeAhpxqemOOn4LhGswb_MHSTW4fn5wzr6aw/s1600/CPC+to+Erre+plus+21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCH9dufHOkvLzDxXI3VYhk1RJZQr-QjdXwaERv9kvMUjJUtFmNRk4le8aWYKH-lbGkuddJY6WoL3nDGCR3zfUGwMeR1mLl508F4ijyeAhpxqemOOn4LhGswb_MHSTW4fn5wzr6aw/s640/CPC+to+Erre+plus+21.jpg" width="571" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-24821047404529284442016-10-15T01:31:00.000-07:002016-10-15T02:12:03.989-07:00Referendumpster fire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CPC MP and ERRE committee member <a href="http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/headline-politics/episodes/49273544/" target="_blank">Scott Reid held a presser today</a> to lay out the CPC position on electoral reform : No referendum, no Consent to electoral reform.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mr Reid cites the results of a householder CPC MPs sent to their constituents. Shocker : 90.6% of them voted for a referendum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wikipedia </span>:<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"In Canadian politics, a Ten Percenter is a party political flyer that MPs have the right to mail — at no cost to themselves — to households in their own ridings, equivalent to 10% of the households in their constituency. They may also send the same flier to all of their constituents if they change 50% of the copy." </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Complaining that members of the public who show up to ERRE road show meetings are "self-selective" and therefore not representative of Canadians as a whole - a complaint also repeated in committee by ERRE Lib MP Sherry Romanado - Reid calls his survey of 59 Conservative ridings out of a total of 338 possible ridings "the largest sampling of views on this issue to date." Ok but <i>30% of ridings surveyed were in Alberta.</i> Nothing "self-selective" there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The 81,000 votes from across Canada returned to the Conservative office or the local riding MP include up to 4 votes permitted per household. To put that in context, 81K is the same number of voters found in the ridings of Ottawa West or North Vancouver. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Scott Reid's own riding of </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston with 77,808 voters, 1400 responded to his electoral referendum questionnaire ... which works out to a 1.8% response rate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, you know, good effort, Cons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now <a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/08/dear-jason-kenney-and-scott-reid.html" target="_blank">Scott Reid has been personally in favour of implementing a proportional electoral system like STV since 2001</a> and his fellow ERRE member<a href="http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/assemblee-nationale/39-2/journal-debats/20110927/43537.html#_Toc304991529" target="_blank"> CPC Gerard Deltell also favours PR </a>, but alas their hands are tied by the 2004 CPC founding charter which specifies that any electoral reform must be preceded by a referendum. Apparently their Bill C-23 Fair Elections Act didn't count.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reid also reported he thinks a five-party committee consensus to proceed with a PR system is possible, that a public referendum on PR would pass, and that Elections Canada CEOs JP Kingsley and Marc Mayrand have said there is time before the next election in 2019 for both a referendum and a new electoral reform system provided the new system is not unduly complicated in the redrawing of ridings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why are the CPCs the fly in the electoral reform ointment?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reid notes that Minister Monsef has not proposed any specific model to replace FPtP or pledged to accept the committee's consensus position, supposing they reach one after this referendum ultimatum. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reid :</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Up til now, she has only said she'll take it under advisement so we can move towards that model. What I don't want to have happen is this : have the committee move towards some kind of conclusion and then the government says 'thank you very much, we're doing something else' because we have an ironclad commitment about 2019 and then impose a system that favours the governing party. That would obviously be completely unacceptable and I am anxious at all costs to make sure that doesn't happen."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I get this concern. I do. The dreaded Alternative Vote, a non-proportional system considered capable of keeping the Libs in power forever because the Libs are everyone's presumed first and/or second choice on a ranked ballot in a single seat riding, is right there in the ERRE committee road show handout and was included in the public e-consultation on the ERRE site. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But after months of sending out householders like the one pictured at the top here - </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sent out prior to the committee rejig in May which allowed the Bloc and Elizabeth May a seat at the ERRE table and reduced the number of Liberals on committee from a majority of six down to four Libs plus the chair - together with your failure to hold town halls in your communities to inform yourselves and voters about possible alternatives to FPtP, and the fact your official seven page <a href="http://scottreid.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016.10.14-CPC-submission-to-ERRE.pdf" target="_blank">Conservative Caucus submission to ERRE</a> today is about nothing but holding a referendum ... well, Cons, you failed miserably at reaching out further afield than just to your dog-whistled fear-mongered householder base here to achieve that all-party consensus you claim to aspire to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">h/t Pat McGrail and James Valcke for the householder viz.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-86681103309837665622016-10-05T04:21:00.002-07:002016-10-05T12:49:22.190-07:00Electoral Reform for Dummies - that would be us.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UaIn-YqSDsU?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well that was then. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today some sixteen months later, having attended exactly zero electoral reform committee road meetings or community-based townhalls these past few weeks, our legacy media is jointly suggesting Trudeau throw in the towel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Susan Delacourt : <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2016/10/04/time-for-trudeau-to-cut-his-losses-on-electoral-reform/" target="_blank">Time for Trudeau to cut his losses on electoral reform</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Mayrand just gave the Liberals a face-saving excuse. They should take it."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ms Delacourt manages to interpret Elections Canada CEO Marc Mayrand's caution that :</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">any new electoral system <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/elections-canada-mayrand-vote-1.3781138">should enjoy broad support</a> beyond a simple majority of MPs (Liberal MPs, in this case) in the House of Commons.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“I believe that changes to the Elections Act should reflect a broad consensus, that’s for sure. And I believe that a single party, whatever the majority of that party is, should not be entitled to change the act unilaterally,” <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2016/09/28/mayrand-calls-for-modernized-electoral-process/">Mayrand said.</a></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">into an 'out' for Trudeau, as if somehow the NDP, Bloc, and Elizabeth May, not to mention the wildly cheering Canadian public who voted for reform above, do not count. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having hung this on something Mayrand didn't say, she goes on to speculate about "what Mayrand didn’t say (but could have)" and it goes downhill from there, although I give her points for not mentioning a referendum until several paras in - perhaps because <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/referendum-on-voting-reform-not-necessary-election-chief-says-1.3096532" target="_blank">Mayrand says it's unnecessary. </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"I don’t think electoral reform is a top-of-mind issue for Canadians," she says, apparently oblivious to the irony that, aside from Kady O'Malley, a media boycott might be having some bearing on that.</span><br />
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Toronto Star : <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/09/30/mayrand-is-right-give-the-people-a-voice-on-election-reform-editorial.html" target="_blank">Mayrand is right – give the people a voice on election reform: Editorial</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Star editorial board first plumps for a national referendum but settles for kicking reform down the road aways:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Trudeau’s best move would be put election reform to a national vote and let Canadians chose the system they want, even if it means breaking a promise to do away with first-past-the-post during his first term in office."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ditto the Ottawa Citizen </span>: <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/mckay-its-more-important-to-do-electoral-reform-right-than-to-do-it-quickly" target="_blank">It's more important to do electoral reform right than to do it quickly</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"First, the Liberals need to break the promise that 2015 will be the last first-past-the-post election. Second, they must replace that promise with a new one to pass enabling legislation for a voting system change prior to the 2019 election, but give up on the idea of implementation by that date."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So did you all get the same phone call from Butts?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who have I missed here? The Sun papers are sticking with their slogan No Referendum, No Reform. Oh, and the Globe and Mail - nothing from them. I guess their entire interest in electoral reform was exhausted in their Minister Monsef birther scoop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not really much use to us alive, are you, legacy media?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The truth is though there is a problem with the ERRE committee. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Electoral reform advocates and activists remain resolutely positive and, in the spirit of the multi-party nature of the committee, open to whatever form of proportional representation is leading despite individual preferences for one system or another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But underneath that there is concern.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite a mandate to come to a consensus about implementing a new electoral system, at least three of the four Liberals on the committee appear unconvinced electoral reform is even necessary and one is still making up his mind about a referendum. They've had 36 meetings and over a hundred witnesses, yet still take turns repeating bs rightwing Keep It Simple talking points about ballots the size of bedsheets and how complicated it would be for voters to rank several candidates/parties on a ballot instead of just one. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Committee Liberals also complain that the members of the public who show up to public ERRE meetings are biased in favour of electoral reform. As if people unconcerned about being represented in government are going to make a special trip in to say 'I don't care about this'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last word goes to Conservative MP and ERRE member Gérard Deltell, speaking on electoral reform at the <a href="http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/assemblee-nationale/39-2/journal-debats/20110927/43537.html#_Toc304991529" target="_blank">Quebec National Assembly on</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/assemblee-nationale/39-2/journal-debats/20110927/43537.html#_Toc304991529" target="_blank"> Sept. 27, <b>2011</b></a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"We have almost 30 months before the next election. We have time to do what all the parties have always urged, that is, a proportional system.'</span></blockquote>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-63167520313923848092016-10-03T03:33:00.001-07:002016-10-03T03:41:49.066-07:00Does this poll make my electoral ass look big?<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apparently half of NDP voter respondents are either very or somewhat satisfied with our current First Past the Post electoral system - really? - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">but </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">71% of them are definitely or probably in favour of a referendum. Does this seem at all likely to you?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">On Sept 28 I attended the travelling public Electoral Reform Committee in Vancouver. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">One of the witnesses was Mario Canseco, VP of InsightsWest, who presented the results of his company's Sept 14-16 weighted <a href="http://www.insightswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ERRE_Presentation_MC_28Sept2016.pdf" target="_blank">online survey of 1029 Canadians on electoral reform</a>. The committee was given his brief but since then the <a href="http://www.insightswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ERRE_Tables_MC_28Sept2016.pdf" target="_blank">questions and data behind the brief</a> have been published online. It is not mentioned who commissioned the poll.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">This was the big news at the time to the committee : Overall, nearly two-thirds of poll respondents are very or somewhat satisfied with keeping our electoral system the way it is and 68% definitely/probably want a referendum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">As there was no media present *<i>yet again</i>* at the committee, it's unlikely anyone will take a look at the survey, now being quoted online by referendum and FPtP fans with names like XXX the Deplorable. Here's the data info on the First-Past-the-Post question :</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvUC2wbsnkhCRCatYnpBm1hIZy_R_Hr6LRPJ8oD8ajDYkpkJh_XCaA_8195t4-7ZlWnksnALXs2HtQ1JD_AMMg5C07c_Ju6V8jAeQ2gw1UrnTOcfda-4esKiRYIJpYBu08Yvqc3A/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-02+at+9.28.11+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvUC2wbsnkhCRCatYnpBm1hIZy_R_Hr6LRPJ8oD8ajDYkpkJh_XCaA_8195t4-7ZlWnksnALXs2HtQ1JD_AMMg5C07c_Ju6V8jAeQ2gw1UrnTOcfda-4esKiRYIJpYBu08Yvqc3A/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-02+at+9.28.11+PM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's leave aside for the moment whether First-Past-the-Post is accurately described here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If I understand this data correctly, half of respondents who voted NDP in the 2015 election are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with First-Past-the-Post. How likely is that? Or that 72% of Liberals are? Or that only 9% of Canadians overall are very dissatisfied with a system in which just over half of their votes - </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.wastedvotes.ca/?q=node%2F2%2FFederal%2F42%2F0%2FTOP#footer" target="_blank">9,106,936 of them - were wasted.</a></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Moving on to what electoral system should replace FPtP for the apparently only <a href="http://www.insightswest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ERRE_Presentation_MC_28Sept2016.pdf" target="_blank">22% of Canadians with any interest in doing so</a> : </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGANO8y1Bp9TyRtSdPowq-MVki42y7Zzvnoqtu3nwK1vjfSg_EZU-MYaNkJf_gUvgVtmsqAUN4fFlGyS9znA5DaaoAh2o5hFL1zWAbiny3d9eNLSym9EGKiwIO3xBlPUwFdzBeIQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-03+at+12.54.58+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGANO8y1Bp9TyRtSdPowq-MVki42y7Zzvnoqtu3nwK1vjfSg_EZU-MYaNkJf_gUvgVtmsqAUN4fFlGyS9znA5DaaoAh2o5hFL1zWAbiny3d9eNLSym9EGKiwIO3xBlPUwFdzBeIQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-03+at+12.54.58+AM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It seems twice as many Conservatives (26% based on their vote in the 2015 election) are strongly in favour of Party-List PR than are their NDP (11%) and Liberal (12%) counterparts. Who knew? </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notable that between 20% and 38% in the different categories were unable to give any opinion either positive or negative on the three alternative voting systems presented to them.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile a whopping 71% of NDP respondents and 65% of Liberal respondents told the pollsters they are in favour of holding a nationwide referendum :</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnKRa5x-MRyaGw-H4eh6e217PbFXXJLU8R3GCGuymDaZpbXB2Rr9tc98ib1AZpDkXQ1rjakZf_wMt59lk9SgFtS8mIVfFaznSGH9GpmIkITNMykA2l9jRHjFyonaGRc_R9GVvFRA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-03+at+1.39.30+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnKRa5x-MRyaGw-H4eh6e217PbFXXJLU8R3GCGuymDaZpbXB2Rr9tc98ib1AZpDkXQ1rjakZf_wMt59lk9SgFtS8mIVfFaznSGH9GpmIkITNMykA2l9jRHjFyonaGRc_R9GVvFRA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-10-03+at+1.39.30+AM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So how does Insights West recruit these respondents? According to their website, you sign up with their survey panel by email : </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"You can earn between $0.50 to $5 for some surveys, for others you will be entered into sweepstakes draws with chances to win gift cards from a variety of Canadian retailers."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the ERRE meeting on Wednesday, Mr Canseco said the respondents are not advised ahead of time what survey they will be taking but that after it starts the different voting systems are explained to them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mr Canseco is tweeting his survey online. I have tweeted my questions as to what I interpret as anomalies in his survey back at him but he has yet to respond. If any poll nerds out there can explain them to me, I'll enter your name in the Creekside sweepstakes draw.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Electoral Reform Committee is running its own <a href="https://survey-sondage-hoc.parl.gc.ca/TakeSurveyPage.aspx?s=0d6f61512d6a49108ec8370a88135ce7&tsid=42f69a202b20412abb5c189457f8882c&c=en-CA" target="_blank">e-consultation with Canadians</a> until this <b>Friday at midnight EST. </b>They put a <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/ERRE/WebDoc/WD8387929/421_ERRE_reldoc_PDF/ERRE_ElectoralSystemandReform_PDF-e.pdf" target="_blank">background paper</a> online if you want to brush up first. The survey takes 15 to 30 minutes and can be completed over several sessions if you prefer. </span></div>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-68100182656556082432016-09-23T04:26:00.000-07:002016-09-25T01:55:32.681-07:00Site C Licence of Occupation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1IKgSnbyyuEV8BnfQ6BXKa5h0Sr-FB5-DkSqD1BUu6PEtlhBsmH8JFMEsekGjdb7dH5cJ4SP0ksWpEkOkPORkoHQ3ngQ2PAdmE85h9A5c2kN55Uf9_WoT8txMYto6jZdnk2AIw/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-09-22+at+2.31.13+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1IKgSnbyyuEV8BnfQ6BXKa5h0Sr-FB5-DkSqD1BUu6PEtlhBsmH8JFMEsekGjdb7dH5cJ4SP0ksWpEkOkPORkoHQ3ngQ2PAdmE85h9A5c2kN55Uf9_WoT8txMYto6jZdnk2AIw/s640/Screen+shot+2016-09-22+at+2.31.13+PM.png" width="528" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On Sunday Sept. 25, the <a href="https://arfd.gov.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=51661" target="_blank">deadline for public input</a> into BC Hydro's request to log crown land slated for Provincial Park status above the Site C dam will close. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why are you only just now hearing about this on a blog? Good question.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to the <i><a href="http://www.woodbusiness.ca/industry-news/news/y2y-upset-over-plan-to-log-near-site-c-dam-3566" target="_blank">Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative</a></i> in an article in woodbusiness.ca, which you probably aren't in the habit of reading on a daily basis :</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"On Sept. 1, BC Hydro placed a notice of intent to log the valley, including parts of the Peace-Boudreau, an Old Growth Management Area, at the back of local newspapers. There was no mention of the Site C dam in the advertisement, which gave a deadline for comments of Sept. 25."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which is interesting because after recently issuing permits via Transport Canada and Fisheries and Oceans to allow the Site C dam to proceed even as the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nation were challenging the previous government's approval of it in the courts, the Trudeau government told the House of Commons on Tuesday that <a href="http://aptn.ca/news/2016/09/20/justice-minister-wilson-raybould-should-resign-over-site-c-says-treaty-8-chief/" target="_blank">"it is now up to B.C. Hydro to conduct any further public consultations"</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not sure an ad at the back of local papers that doesn't even name Site C counts as "public consultations" but here's your <a href="https://arfd.gov.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=51661" target="_blank">window of opportunity t</a>o tell the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations what you think about :</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1) the lack of public consultation in which they have been complicit, and </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) BC Hydro</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">l</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ogging forest and vegetation above the shale and mud landslides built on clay they've already engineered- as <a href="https://lailayuile.com/2016/09/21/new-site-c-photos-show-continued-mitigation-efforts-on-slide-prone-north-slope-construction/" target="_blank">amply documented in photos at Laila Yuile's blog.</a></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://lailayuile.com/2016/09/21/new-site-c-photos-show-continued-mitigation-efforts-on-slide-prone-north-slope-construction/" target="_blank"> </a> </span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I spent much of today submitting this BC Hydro Licence of Occupation info, minus any snarky editorializing, to news media, environmental watchdogs, Site C opponents, and MPs. I haven't heard peep back from any of them so far despite the considerable help of facebookies and twitterati furiously aiming it at expected interested parties. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Do people living in the Peace even know about it? I don't know. There's a Site C Project website and a twitter feed and I don't see this mentioned on either one.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As Christy Clark rushes to evict ranchers and landowners by Christmas to get the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">83-kilometre flood zone </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"past</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> the point of no return" </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">before the next BC election, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the largest removal of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve in its history,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> i</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">t probably got lost amongst everything else Site C this month :</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">APTN : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://aptn.ca/news/2016/09/22/justice-minister-blames-previous-government-for-site-c-project/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #333333;">Justice Minister </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; line-height: 24.27px; text-align: justify;">Jody Wilson Raybould</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; line-height: 24.27px; text-align: justify;"> blames previous government for SiteC</span></a></span><br />
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APTN : <a href="http://aptn.ca/news/2016/09/20/justice-minister-wilson-raybould-should-resign-over-site-c-says-treaty-8-chief/" target="_blank">Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould should resign over SiteC says Treaty 8 chief</a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CBC : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.3761766/indigenous-liberal-mp-breaks-with-his-government-over-b-c-hydro-dam-support-1.3761772" target="_blank">ndigenous Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette breaks with his government over B.C. hydro dam support</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">DeSmogBlog</span> : <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/2016/09/13/trudeau-silent-bc-first-nations-take-site-c-dam-fight-federal-court" target="_blank">Trudeau Silent as B.C. First Nations Take Site C Dam Fight to Federal Court</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vancouver Observer : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/site-c-project-not-keeping-constitution-or-un-declaration-bellegarde" target="_blank">Site C project not in keeping with constitution or UN declaration: Bellegarde</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ricochet : <a href="https://ricochet.media/en/1392/first-nations-caravan-arrives-in-montreal-as-site-c-court-challenge-begins" target="_blank">First Nations caravan arrives in Montreal as Site C court challenge begins</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Tyee : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/09/12/BC-Hydro-Public-Interest-Private-Profits/" target="_blank">BC Hydro: From Public Interest to Private Profits</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdyAIfaoU8Y" target="_blank">Disturbing the Peace: The Story of the Site C Dam</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Harry Swain, former chair of Joint Review Panel on Site C : "I think we're making a very big mistake."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally <a href="https://lailayuile.com/the-case-to-stop-site-c-construction-links-news/" target="_blank">No Strings Attached </a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for the on-the-ground Site C nitty gritty you won't read anywhere else. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OO7_gJtwTdA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't forget to t<a href="https://arfd.gov.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=51661" target="_blank">ell the BC government and BC Hydro what you think </a>about this latest round of "public consultation" and logging land above mudslides before the deadline this coming Sunday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/msvic14" target="_blank">Mike</a> for the link to the application</span><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-14089454539058386602016-09-21T05:30:00.001-07:002016-09-21T05:30:17.040-07:00TPP - the TFW Program on steroids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR3CySUPKarX7j-CUBa2q54fcAhAMKWdM69hokNLQZO8Nn65JPGt0YpDgw1_x9DO56T_X8uE5_blyXFheHArejN5iN_kHxNwmZBytgI_iZTisR6CFjgV4yLaB5FaaHB_EpPsjXpA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-09-21+at+1.20.53+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR3CySUPKarX7j-CUBa2q54fcAhAMKWdM69hokNLQZO8Nn65JPGt0YpDgw1_x9DO56T_X8uE5_blyXFheHArejN5iN_kHxNwmZBytgI_iZTisR6CFjgV4yLaB5FaaHB_EpPsjXpA/s400/Screen+shot+2016-09-21+at+1.20.53+AM.png" width="302" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Human Resources Committee, HUMA - 6 Libs, 3 Cons, and 1 NDP - released its report on the <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/HUMA/Reports/RP8374415/421_HUMA_Rpt04_PDF/421_HUMA_Rpt04-e.pdf" target="_blank">Temporary Foreign Worker Program</a> yesterday, after a month of hearing from 43 witnesses as varied as Lululemon and the Migrant Mothers Project.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Industry complaints initiated the study. The committee was asked to find a balance between employers desperate for TFWs for jobs they are unable to fill with Canadians and the rights of workers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I looked up a few of those desperate employers on various Canadian job search sites. If they're not desperate enough to be advertising these job vacancies where Canadians can find them, why exactly is government in the business of engineering TFWs to fill them? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's just part of the dissenting report submitted by the lone NDP committee member alongside the main report : </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Mobility Program and the Trans-Pacific Partnership</span><blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The previous Conservative government split the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in two – the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which covers streams requiring a Labour Market Impact Assessment, and the International Mobility Program (IMP), in which no assessment of the impact on the Canadian labour market is required.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The IMP is actually much larger than the TFWP (nearly twice the size in 2014), yet the committee review paid no attention to the IMP, the role that the IMP plays in the Canadian economy, and the impact that it has on workers. This is very disappointing.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is of particular concern since the Liberal government is looking to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. In addition to harming our economy, this agreement will expand access to the IMP, allowing employers to bring in foreign workers without any assessment of the impact on the Canadian labour market, even if Canadian workers are available to do the job. This has led some to describe the TPP as “the temporary foreign worker program on steroids.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2014/06/chris-alexander-minister-of-imps-and.html" target="_blank">You gotta admit I called it.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">in 2013, 38% of foreign nationals </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">came in under the TFWP, but 62%</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">came in under the IMP</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Then there's the ICTs, or I</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">ntra-Company Transfers, which Jason Kenney helpfully told us when he was Employment Minister </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">were "often hard-wired into trade deals". </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">ICTs "</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">enables international companies with a presence in Canada to transfer their existing employees to their Canadian location". And <a href="http://sterlingimmigrationltd.com/business-immigration/canadian-start-up-visa/?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original" target="_blank">if you don't already have a branch in Canada</a> - well, we got an app for that:</span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Foreign businesses wishing to establish a Canadian enterprise may use the ICT Start-Up Visa program to bring key workers to the country to open a new office and begin doing business."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in June, Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk told a room full of union officials that she plans to toast the day the Liberal government shuts down the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, but in the meantime they've</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> "</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">already quietly made one change, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/06/16/federal-labour-minister-would-cheer-end-of-temporary-foreign-workers-program_n_10504500.html" target="_blank">removing </a>r<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/06/16/federal-labour-minister-would-cheer-end-of-temporary-foreign-workers-program_n_10504500.html" target="_blank">estrictions on the number of workers seasonal employers can bring in through the program this year.</a>"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course all this will be moot if the TPP goes through. 12A :</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;">Canada shall grant temporary entry and provide a work permit or work authorization to Professionals and Technicians and will not:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;">(a) require labour certification tests or other procedures of similar intent as a condition for temporary entry; or</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;">(b) impose or maintain any numerical restriction relating to temporary entry.</span></blockquote>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-20663678861194890922016-09-15T14:15:00.003-07:002016-10-15T21:38:58.693-07:00Conservative voices for electoral reform<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notable because we don't often hear Conservative voices speaking publicly in favour of electoral reform.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">Sept 8, 2016. Colin Craig of the Manning Centre interviews President of Canadian Taxpayers Federation Troy Lanigan, on the benefits of proportional representation. Lanigan compares MMP with STV, which both prefer. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yesterday ERRE committee members </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CPC Scott Reid, NDP Nathan Cullen, and GPC Elizabeth May sent <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/324034088/Letter-to-the-Minister-of-Democratic-Institutions#from_embed" target="_blank">a letter to </a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/324034088/Letter-to-the-Minister-of-Democratic-Institutions#from_embed" target="_blank">Democratic Institutions Minister Monsef</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">requesting a move towards more concrete models of three different PR systems:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Canadians will want to know how the various proposals for electoral reform would work and what they would look like in practice.”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They have asked Monsef to relegate some of her $10.7M public awareness budget to produce visual aids like potential ballots and electoral maps for three proposed systems - mixed member proportional representation (MMP), single transferrable vote (STV) and former Elections Canada CEO J</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ean-Pierre Kingsley's </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hybrid rural-urban system. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The committee begins their cross-country road trip, hopefully with these materials in hand, starting next week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And no, I don't know why there's no signatory from a Liberal and Bloc committee member on the request for materials to Monsef.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PR proponents have criticized Monsef's cross-country road trip as being too strictly focused on 'values' to the relative exclusion of discussion on different electoral systems -which </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">are more rigorously discussed and debated at MPs' electoral townhalls.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So now we're going to get into specifics. In the meantime, you can find them at <a href="http://www.cpac.ca/en/electoralreform/" target="_blank">CPAC</a>, in the appendices of </span><a href="http://www.fairvote.ca/fvc-submission-to-erre/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">FairVoteCanada's submission to ERRE</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, or </span><a href="http://www.samaracanada.com/samara-in-the-classroom/electoral-reform" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Samara</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">Happy International Democracy Day. Hoping to get more of it here in Canada.</span></div>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-80347744893393168472016-09-07T02:07:00.000-07:002016-09-07T11:38:45.131-07:00Electoral Reform Road Trip<div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last week <a href="http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=7355" target="_blank">IPSOS</a> passed on their rather depressing survey news to the ERRE committee that only 3% of Canadians were following electoral reform at all closely and those 3% were mostly wealthy educated older dudes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pretty sure that's going to change in the next few weeks. Here in BC, there's over 30 electoral events - the ones from today on are listed below. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you can't make any of these, you can host your own discussion group and make your own submission to the Electoral Reform Committee. <a href="http://www.fairvote.ca/dialogue/" target="_blank">FairVoteCanada </a>supports any version of proportional representation and will provide you with materials for your discussion :</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">**A dialogue can be as small as two or three people getting together for coffee or as big as a community town hall, and anything in between!<br />**You can also conduct a dialogue at a meeting of an organization you are already involved in.<br />**The government has provided a list of questions they would like feedback on. All you need to do is discuss the questions in your group, have someone take notes, and submit your report to the committee by Oct. 7.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or you can attend one of <a href="http://www.fairvote.ca/dialogue/" target="_blank">another dozen BC discussion groups</a> FairVote helped organize that aren't on the list below. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't know anything about electoral reform? Don't worry about it - we're all learning. Here's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PtXrjdYTQ" target="_blank">Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, Guy Giorno</a>, on what's really important about it - making every Canadian vote count.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">Meanwhile, Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef has already kicked off her cross-country </span><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/electoral-reform/participate-in-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-consultations/attend-a-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-event/federal-electoral-reform-community-dialogue-tour.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;" target="_blank">national electoral reform community dialogue tour: </a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN7d0Ykypk91nS9VryKXvYjKkbhb2D_R-OcVBuSaxkKBdcYMmpitywh7irR5iLvqMlQmHk2UJLAcm9SFDb_7l32BsQA5gxdxQJz_sc3rdJa9Qk7iB8Li23iSb2cSyhh5RwZZ4xkw/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-09-06+at+9.54.09+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN7d0Ykypk91nS9VryKXvYjKkbhb2D_R-OcVBuSaxkKBdcYMmpitywh7irR5iLvqMlQmHk2UJLAcm9SFDb_7l32BsQA5gxdxQJz_sc3rdJa9Qk7iB8Li23iSb2cSyhh5RwZZ4xkw/s640/Screen+shot+2016-09-06+at+9.54.09+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">22 <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/electoral-reform/participate-in-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-consultations/attend-a-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-event.html" target="_blank">Local electoral reform events</a> in BC</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> from today onwards :</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 7th, 2016 - <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/electoral-reform/participate-in-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-consultations/attend-a-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-event/federal-electoral-reform-community-dialogue-tour.html">Federal electoral reform community dialogue tour</a> with Minister of Democratic Institutions <b>Maryam Monsef,</b> </span><span style="color: inherit; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">7:00 - 8:30pm, Saturna Island Community Hall, 109 East Point Road, <b>Saturna Island</b>, BC</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.1;">September 7th, 2016 - Saturna Island Electoral Reform Townhall with MP </span></span><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">E</span><span style="color: inherit; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">lizabeth May, </span></b><span style="color: inherit; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">7:00 - 8:30pm, Saturna Island Community Hall, 109 East Point Road, </span><span style="color: inherit; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"><b>Saturna Island</b></span><span style="color: inherit; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"><b>,</b> BC</span></div>
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September 7th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall with MP <b>Alistair MacGregor</b>, 6:00 - 7:30, Cowichan Campus Lecture Theatre, 2011 University Way, <b>Duncan</b>, BC, <a href="http://alistairmacgregor.ndp.ca/electoral-reform-town-hall-with-mp-alistair-macgregor">RSVP</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 7th, 2016 - Town Hall in Terrace with MP <b>Nathan Cullen,</b> 7 pm - 9 pm, Terrace Arena Banquet Room, 3320 Kalum St., <b>Terrace,</b> BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 7th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall with MP <b>Gord Johns</b>, 7:00 PM, Parksville Community & Conference Centre, 132 East Jensen Avenue, <b>Parksville</b>, BC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 8th, 2016 - <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/electoral-reform/participate-in-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-consultations/attend-a-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-event/federal-electoral-reform-community-dialogue-tour.html">Federal electoral reform community dialogue tour</a> with Minister of Democratic Institutions <b>Maryam Monsef</b>, 7:00pm-9:00pm, Kitimat Riverlodge, 654 Columbia Ave West, <b>Kitimat</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 8th, 2016 - Town Hall in Kitimat with MP <b>Nathan Cullen</b>, 7 pm – 9 pm, Kitimat Riverlodge, 654 Columbia Ave West, <b>Kitimat</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 8th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Townhall with MP <b>Gord Johns</b>, 7:00 PM Florence Filberg Centre 411 Anderton Avenue, <b>Courtenay</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 9th, 2016 - <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/electoral-reform/participate-in-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-consultations/attend-a-canadian-federal-electoral-reform-event/federal-electoral-reform-community-dialogue-tour.html">Federal electoral reform community dialogue tour</a> with Minister of Democratic Institutions <b>Maryam Monsef</b>, </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">7pm-9pm, </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Sandman Hotel, </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Vancouver City Centre Ballroom, </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">180 West Georgia Street</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <b>Vancouver,</b> BC<br /><br />September 9th, 2016 - Town Hall in Smithers, with MP <b>Nathan Cullen,</b> 7 pm - 9 pm, The Old Church, 1st Ave at King St., <b>Smithers,</b> BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 10th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall with MP <b>Rachel Blaney</b>, 1:30 - 4:30 pm, Comox Community Centre, 1855 Noel Avenue, <b>Comox</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><time datetime="2016-09-10" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">September 10th, 2016</time><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">-</span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="external" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #284162; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1; text-decoration: underline;"></a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">Fair Vote Canada is hosting a town hall on electoral reform with panelists from all political backgrounds, including NDP MP <b>Murray Rankin</b>, former Liberal candidate <b>David Merner</b>, Conservative commentator <b>Bruce Hallsor</b> and Green Party member <b>Adam Olsen.</b> Saturday, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm. Nellie McClung Branch of Greater Victoria Public Library, 3950 Cedar Hill Rd., <b>Victoria</b>, BC. Contact:</span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><a href="mailto:mark.jeffers@fairvote.ca" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7834bc; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">Mark Jeffers</a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 11th, 2016 - <a href="http://sheilamalcolmson.ndp.ca/electoral-reform-nanaimo">Electoral Reform Townhall</a> with MP <b>Sheila Malcolmson</b> & MP <b>Nathan Cullen,</b> 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, Doors at 11am. Malaspina Theatre (Building 310) Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth St <b>Nanaimo,</b> BC RSVP</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 12th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall – Have Your Say in MP <b>Richard Cannings,</b> 7 pm - 9 pm, Penticton library auditorium, 785 Main Street, <b>Penticton</b>, BC</span><br />
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<time datetime="2016-09-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">September 12th, 2016</time><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">-</span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="external" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #284162; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1; text-decoration: underline;"></a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">Office of <b>Jonathan Wilkinson,</b> MP Electoral Reform Town Hall, Monday , 7 - 9 pm Pipe Shop Building, 15 Wallace Mews Road, <b>North Vancouver,</b> BC. RSVP:</span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><a href="http://democraticreformnorthvan.eventbrite.ca/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7834bc; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">democraticreformnorthvan.eventbrite.ca</a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 12th, 2016 - Mayne Island Town Hall with MP<b> Elizabeth May</b>, MP, 18:30, PDT Mayne Island Community Centre, 493 Felix Jack Road, <b>Mayne Island</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 13th, 2016 - Pender Island Town Hall with MP <b>Elizabeth May, </b>18:00 PDT, Pender Island Community Hall 4418 Bedwell Harbour Road, <b>Pender Island</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 15, 2016 - </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Campbell River Town Hall on Electoral Reform with <b>Elizabeth May</b> and <b>Megan Dias</b> from the Centre for Democratic Institutions, University of B.C. 18:30 PDT, </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Campbell River Museum, 470 Island Highway, <b>Campbell River,</b> BC</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 16th, 2016 - Salt Spring Island Town Hall with MP <b>Elizabeth May,</b> 18:00 PDT Multi-purpose Room, G.I.S.S. 232 Rainbow Road, <b>Salt Spring Island</b>, BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 17th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall with MP <b>Rachel Blaney</b>, 1:30 - 4:30 pm, Dwight Hall 6274 Walnut St, <b>Powell River,</b> BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 18th, 2016 - Dialogue on Electoral Reform from 3:00pm-5:00pm at Creekside Commons, 2201 Lambert Drive, <b>Courtenay,</b> BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 24th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall with MP <b>Rachel Blaney</b>, 1 - 3 pm, Port McNeill Community Hall, 1473 Broughton Blvd, <b>Port McNeill, </b>BC</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 24th, 2016 - Electoral Reform Town Hall with MPs <b>Alistair MacGregor</b> and <b>Randall Garrison</b>, 2:00 - 3:30, Community Commons Belmost School, 3041 Langford Lake Rd.,<b> Langford,</b> BC, <a href="http://alistairmacgregor.ndp.ca/electoral-reform-town-hall-with-mps-alistair-macgregor-and-randall-garrison">RSVP</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And don't forget the Electoral Committee also wants to hear from individual Canadians via their</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://survey-sondage-hoc.parl.gc.ca/TakeSurveyPage.aspx?s=0d6f61512d6a49108ec8370a88135ce7&tsid=402ed260d37e40908bb288765294bd51&c=en-CA" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">E-CONSULTATION</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If I missed your g</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">roup or got something wrong, please leave me a correction in comments. Thank you.</span></div>
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-53805333624876574582016-09-01T13:59:00.001-07:002016-09-01T13:59:49.359-07:00Craig Scott's testimony at ERRE #23<div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notes from his presentation at the electoral reform committee today because Kady didn't blog this morning's meeting and the ERRE committee is taking about two weeks to post transcriptions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Craig Scott</b> - </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">former NDP critic for democratic reform</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">16 of 31 Liberals voted for MMP/PR electoral reform in the House in December.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">MMP is the best of two worlds - local representation and fairness both addressed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">MMP takes both local and regional candidates more seriously than any other form of PR or FPtP because voters can vote for preferred candidate and party separately. Local candidates vote is based on the candidate's work in their community without worrying about strategic vote. Regional MPs have to look at bigger picture of national issues because we currently have deficit of attention to national vision.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Any PR system would address these FPtP faults : </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~false majorities result in less diversity of opinion, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~some regions unrepresented in Parl, ie NDP swept 80 seats in Quebec in 2011 with 40% of vote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~exacerbates regionalism, ie Alberta IS Conservative</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~feeds into unduly executive-dominated Westminster system of parliament via false majorities</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~ silo-vision re legislation, rather than have to encounter different points of view</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~tends away from consensus and collegiality and towards adversarialism and hyper-partisanship and organizing for next election.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Alternative Vote is ranked ballot within single member districts, and is in Liberal Party Policy Book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nothing in AV counteracts FPtP problems and it exacerbates disproportionality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If last election had been under AV, Eric Grenier says 224 Libs would have attained seats instead of 185 seats under current system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">AV does not fulfill committee mandate of making every vote count because it never gets to counting the second candidates after the first round.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Compromise to get to multiple goals is to use the Jenkins Model of MMP allowing ranked voting on the local election side only or STV model with more local attention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Naysayers are saying this committee is set up to be a "noble failure" due to deadlock impasse. This committee is formed the way proportional representation committees will be formed in the future. You guys can be proof that a system like this can work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">End of notes from Scott.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm rather alarmed to learn from the <a href="http://ipolitics.ca/2016/08/31/one-in-5-canadians-aware-of-electoral-reform-process-pollster/" target="_blank">IPSOS poll</a> discussed at yesterday's meeting that only 3% of Canadians are following the issue of electoral reform at all closely - older, more educated, affluent males - and that only one in five Canadians are aware of it at all. </span><br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-67309746498417495712016-08-28T02:43:00.001-07:002016-08-28T02:43:23.657-07:00Dear Postmedia Editorial Board<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This : </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is not an adequate response or apology for what was previously published in that same space by the Postmedia Editorial Board on August 24th : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"[Elizabeth] </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May must renounce anti-Israel resolutions</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">". Excerpted :</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKi4kbXYf0xYwkQmhE8Vzzs-h27TKnnKk0ZX6XaJc6RG-OXogcrsW8YzY3PBJFu-PAtvQsXAi4CZETBQo_tIX_Qxh3Qk47LdiUmTiIeosDRds88g3-pcmXbOCO-ZZXluXMEx2NA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-08-26+at+12.30.07+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKi4kbXYf0xYwkQmhE8Vzzs-h27TKnnKk0ZX6XaJc6RG-OXogcrsW8YzY3PBJFu-PAtvQsXAi4CZETBQo_tIX_Qxh3Qk47LdiUmTiIeosDRds88g3-pcmXbOCO-ZZXluXMEx2NA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-08-26+at+12.30.07+PM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are not RebelMedia. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are not some partisan advocacy organization that can pass off the blame for this appalling libelous attack on some hapless </span><a href="https://ricochet.media/en/1342/bnai-brith-smears-rabbleca-with-white-supremacist-label" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">newbie book reviewer</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - although I notice you share with them the phrase "figleaf of Jewishness". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No, you are the editorial board of Vancouver's largest newspaper. Shame on you for stating Independent Jewish Voices supports terrorism and denies the Holocaust.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://ijvcanada.org/2016/ijv-statement-postmedia-libel/" target="_blank">IJV Statement On Canadian Media Giant Libeling Us</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Corey Levine : </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/corey-levine/jewish-national-fund-discrimination_b_11387746.html" target="_blank">Why I Asked The Green Party To Challenge The JNF's Charitable Status</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only upside to this ridiculous op-ed is the thorough drubbing you received in comments below it. First five comments, excerpted :</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"As a former journalist and chair of Langara's journalism program, I'm shocked by the degree of distortion in this editorial."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"This editorial is preposterous!"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"What a very sad editorial, full of errors and inaccuracies and probably conscious lies."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"This 'editorial' is purposely disingenuous."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"This editorial could have been written by the Likud party."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indeed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Your op-ed also condemned a resolution sponsored by Elizabeth May and 28 other Greens calling for Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund, the largest private landowner in Israel. JNF has used its tax-deductible status in Canada to build and maintain the infamous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rZmzIqK6Fc" target="_blank">“Canada Park”</a> on the ruins of three Palestinian villages. </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you note in your correction, at the convention the language was watered down to call for any charitable organization's status to be revoked if they are in violation of Canadian or international law. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2014 </span><a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/Leaders+Calgary+Jewish+community+feted+Negev+Gala/9981601/story.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey was Honorary Chair of the Jewish National Fund's annual Negev Gala</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elizabeth May has attended their galas in the past and <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Canadian-Green-Party-sponsors-resolutions-targeting-Israel-460134" target="_blank">consulted with JNF CEO Josh Cooper prior to the Green Party convention vote.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The offending op-ed, now taken down, published in the Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen :</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nPjyMfYTUGKQvyY5WqYv4SvEeoZCMoEBJXP-hl1ZbruVqFq5I648I8SFRqyK7lhxXSZ0UgNnD3kOUgr5d-Vwq4Je9Dbh6m7IhEt5jEvi7DW7tr5qYuHyFDrGMmx7rX_oHw2uWA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-08-27+at+12.34.47+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nPjyMfYTUGKQvyY5WqYv4SvEeoZCMoEBJXP-hl1ZbruVqFq5I648I8SFRqyK7lhxXSZ0UgNnD3kOUgr5d-Vwq4Je9Dbh6m7IhEt5jEvi7DW7tr5qYuHyFDrGMmx7rX_oHw2uWA/s640/Screen+shot+2016-08-27+at+12.34.47+AM.png" width="368" /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uFQN3MAVEv6oSs0Jzhcr2qxka1FTOdTVzIuUT9yU7ImZHnmiW0FOyDF-7fbYehW1wDFeaW3ABws507qaxv7IHjsCcf3EjQ0sOh8oMgS_ju72ZaIQzoTHQKOqeuomn_WMXsDpBA/s400/Screen+shot+2016-08-27+at+12.35.17+AM.png" width="360" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nPjyMfYTUGKQvyY5WqYv4SvEeoZCMoEBJXP-hl1ZbruVqFq5I648I8SFRqyK7lhxXSZ0UgNnD3kOUgr5d-Vwq4Je9Dbh6m7IhEt5jEvi7DW7tr5qYuHyFDrGMmx7rX_oHw2uWA/s1600/Screen+shot+2016-08-27+at+12.34.47+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In February, the House of Commons passed a motion </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">229-to-51 </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">condemning any actions by Canadian groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement. IJV was the first national Jewish organization globally to support the non-violent BDS movement; t</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he Green Party is the first national party in Canada to follow suit. Bravo to you both.</span><br />
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h/t Waterbaby<br />
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Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17909993.post-30402990485598966812016-08-26T15:59:00.000-07:002016-08-27T14:41:23.135-07:00Stephen Harper's Legacy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-A57gMGXjyQLvkYcUTogsAPk91QiutHvTcH3VFS-4PC6Fehvw4v7skp00OqS1g5pwVZqqSwKGocrKBa_1Sd1AhcaxQtsvdLAhpNZDmOTVaAWBt086Gv7BnoFsxL_x_khEz_BFQ/s1600/So+long+Stephen+Harper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-A57gMGXjyQLvkYcUTogsAPk91QiutHvTcH3VFS-4PC6Fehvw4v7skp00OqS1g5pwVZqqSwKGocrKBa_1Sd1AhcaxQtsvdLAhpNZDmOTVaAWBt086Gv7BnoFsxL_x_khEz_BFQ/s1600/So+long+Stephen+Harper.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ten years ago on the day Stephen Harper and his Conservative government were first elected into office, US Ambassador David Wilkins sent home a diplomatic cable outlining how the US could best support and direct a prime minister whose values were "not in line" with most Canadians. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He recommended </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Harper would be useful in "advancing the US agenda for Canada" and that giving him " a success story" like the softwood lumber deal would "shore up his credentials" with Canadians without appearing to "sell out to the Americans".</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2011/06/wikileaks-us-bid-to-shore-up-harper.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ambassador Wilkins "</span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">transformational agenda" </span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2011/06/wikileaks-us-bid-to-shore-up-harper.html" target="_blank">for Harper</a> :</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"Cross border law enforcement" "enhanced information sharing", "joint maritime operations", </span>"more robust counter-narcotics efforts", "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">security perimeter", following the US lead on Haiti, Afghanistan, Iran, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Venezuela, Colombia, ...</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Has Canada done anything independent of this cable under Harper?</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last time for Harper's Perps with Perks - <a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/search?q=Perps+with+perks&max-results=20&by-date=true&m=1" target="_blank">here are the stories behind each Perp</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></span>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09811694143714068436noreply@blogger.com4