The author provides a good overview of the American electoral system and its weaknesses and proposes that instead of fixed-date elections, we should be looking at proportional representation.
Note: switching to fixed-date...
American-Style Fixed Date Election System A Bad Idea?
Posted on Wednesday, February 25 at 12:00 by sthompson
Nobody has good ideas all the time, and here's a compelling critique of an idea Mel Hurtig has apparently proposed in the past--switching to fixed-date elections. Gordon Campbell and Dalton McGuinty are currently the guys in the gung-ho camp.
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More incentive to vote and do your part. Just make sure the holiday falls in the middle of the week so people dont use it as an excuse to take an extra long weekend.
There are drawbacks to a set date though, such as permanent campaigning on behalf of the talking heads.
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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.
Consider that the politicians can wait for the best time when the opposition is in disarray, as Chretien did, much to my chagrin. He will go down in history, but it was pure and simple manipulation that got him the honour of 3 consecutive majority governments. It certainly wasn\'t his performance.
Besides, even Paul Martin wanted to call another election after only 3 1/2 years since the last, same as Chretien did in 2000. That\'s not good enough.
There should be at least a 4 year interval before they can call another election.
They are simply too costly.
On the other point, the 4th year of a fixed 4 year term will largely become a caretaker year, where everybody knows what is coming and when, so the actual work done by the government could suffer.
Just a couple of thoughts.
BTW, I do like the idea.
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"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca
A national holiday would improve nation-building in this country, and would DEFINITELY get people talking politics again. Thank you for the great idea........
P.S. --please, please, don\'t stop with one holiday.