Remembering Oscar Wilde on the anniversary of his death
November 30th 1900
This is a picture of his original grave,
“He was buried in the eleventh grave in the seventh row of the seventeenth section of Bagneux on 3 December. A simple stone with an iron railing around it” Richard Ellman
Remembering Oscar Wilde on the anniversary of his death
November 30th 1900
This is a picture of his original grave,
“He was buried in the eleventh grave in the seventh row of the seventeenth section of Bagneux on 3 December. A simple stone with an iron railing around it” Richard Ellman
Film maker Joel Ashton McCarthy has turned his talents toward promoting Proportional Representation in the BC Referendum.
Joel crowd sourced his excellent video, again demonstrating ordinary people think Proportional Representation and democracy are important.
How can they call a system that routinely gives 100% power to candidates & parties who’ve won less than a majority of the votes a democracy?
Instead of providing representation to as many voters as possible, our “First Past the Post” system disfranchises most of us.
The only real majority government (elected with 50+% of the votes) elected in BC was the BC Liberals who were elected on a promise of electoral reform in 2001. But once they had 100% power in hand, they lost interest in adopting fairer elections. In fact, the idea that Proportional Representation would limit their future power to what they earn in votes lost all its charm. They designed the 2005 Referendum to fail.
Even with 57.7% of the voters voting to adopt Single Transferable Vote Proportional Representation in the 1st BC Referendum, it failed. Nothing changed. Even so, it was a little too close for comfort, so they worked even harder to keep it from being adopted in the second referendum. And so nothing changed and the BC Liberals enjoyed nearly 2 decades of majority power without ever winning a majority of votes again.
Politicians across Canada and around the world stack the deck against meaningful electoral reform. In the UK they promised electoral reform but managed to keep a Proportional Representation option off the referendum ballot. The status quo serves them unfair advantage they just can’t resist.
In spite of the mind numbing voter apathy that arises from votes that don’t count, enough ordinary people have begun to understand the issue– and care– that it has never gone away. The push for electoral reform is growing stronger every day.
Mr Trudeau’s promise of voting reform resonated so strongly with Canadian voters because we knew our system was not working well. Mr Trudeau’s broken campaign promise So instead of killing off the idea of voting reform forever, the net effect of has been to galvanize Canadians. The genie is out of the bottle, and is not going back.
PEI voters voted to adopt Proportional Representation, but their government refused to go through with it so they’re going to have a second referendum. And the ruling party has bent over backward trying to design an iron-clad-can’t-possibly-pass referendum process for the next one.
All the Quebec opposition parties got together and made a pact that whichever formed government would just go ahead and implement Proportional Representation.
And right now BC is having its 3rd Referendum. Votes must be in by December 7th, 2018.
Looks like we’re at a tipping point, folks. Something is going to give. And when it does, it will be clear that the fearmongers defending the status quo have been dishonest with Canadians. Voters will discover what representative democracy is supposed to be like. And the sky won’t fall.
Once that happens, the dominoes will fall. Which province will be first?
If you’re in BC, make sure to vote. Maybe your province will lead the way!
Film maker Joel Ashton McCarthy has turned his talents toward promoting Proportional Representation in the BC Referendum.
Instead of providing representation to as many voters as possible, our “First Past the Post” system disfranchises most of us.
In spite of the mind numbing voter apathy that arises from votes that don’t count, enough ordinary people have begun to understand the issue– and care– that it has never gone away. The push for electoral reform is growing stronger every day.
PEI voters voted to adopt Proportional Representation, but their government refused to go through with it so they’re going to have a second referendum. And the ruling party has bent over backward trying to design an iron-clad-can’t-possibly-pass referendum process for the next one.
And right now BC is having its 3rd Referendum. Votes must be in by December 7th, 2018.
