Canada Still A Model For The World - For Now

"The media still tend to forget that if all of the voters that wanted peacekeepers and a green Canada voted for the parties or independents that support those policies none of us would be voting Liberal or Con. 4Canada"
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The media tends to forget a lot of important things.

What is a constant source of embarassment for the Canadian government as an institution (irrespective of whatever Party so happens to be driving it), is that fewer and fewer Canadians are bothering to vote.

Not voting can be seen either as a vote for "None of The Above" or a vote for "I don't give a sh** who wins - they are all the same."

When we look at the votes where no party is chosen (i.e., a missing vote), then we see that 35.1% of the eligible population did not vote for anyone at all. When you add in the "None of the Above Party" or the "Who cares Party" onto the ballot and adjust the numbers, it tells you something rather interesting.

The 2006 voter turnout was 64.9%, subtracting 100% gives us 35.1% who did not vote or voted for none of the above (NOTA).

Values in percent normalized with NOTA added

NOTA = 35.1
Con = 36.3 x .649 = 23.6
Lib = 30.2 x .649 = 19.6
BQ = 10.5 x .649 = 6.8
NDP = 17.5 x .649 = 11.4
IND = 0.5 x .649 = 0.32
GRN = 4.5 x .649 = 2.9
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So here we have a so-called minority government ruling over the Canadian people, with only 23.6% of the eligible vote.

Most Canadians chose NOTA with a healthy 11.5% lead over the Harper contender!

Even with the Conservative and Liberal votes combined (which we can say makes up the current ruling government), it only makes up 43.2% of the eligible votes. The remainer is 56.8%.

The basic reality is that most Canadian did not vote for either Harper or Martin combined, and a significant percentage of the Canadian population have virtually no say what-so-ever in the political process.

With a healthy lead, NOTA won the 2006 election!

"With a healthy lead, NOTA won the 2006 election!"

That's great news! Now if we could only get NOTA to run the country we might get some decent government for a change.

Do you think fear of a NOTA majority was why NOTA wasn't on the ballot?

I think we the people, can still be a model for the world, if we get off our collective butts and start to speak out against the 'warmachine' and turn peace back into an honourable pursuit. When people feel all hope is lost, they begin to grasp at whatever happiness they can find, fleeting or not, they buy things to make them happy, they hoard food, resources to protect themselves, and they basicly climb over others in their pursuit of surviving. We are hardwired to survive, and by rejecting the 'trend' that there won't be 'enough' of whatever, we can begin to think, reason, and use common sense again. We might even be capable of showing compassion for our fellow human beings, if we can reject the messages to 'consume, produce and run like hell before there is nothing left for us' perhaps we can be truly satisfied and stop buying what 'they' are selling. If we didn't let them depress us, we wouldn't have to buy their anti-depressants!

I know we can return to being that model of hope, if we chose to be.

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

This is an example of what we must be very aware of- this is a poll on telus tonight..

"Which of these illness-based issues has concerned or affected you the most lately?

AIDS/ STDs
Avian flu
Mad cow
West Nile virus"

Now you get to chose but you don't get to chose none of the above, or 'political corruption' or 'greed' 'illegal wars' which could be options under illness -based issues...but the programing here is to get you to think aobut the 4 selections...

Kind of like asking you if you feel....sad, mad, bad, or just awful.....where is your other feeling options...like happy, joyful, elated, content, satisfied, etc

Let's not let anyone take away our options...don't vote for one of the above when you really mean none of the above!

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

"Let's not let anyone take away our options...don't vote for one of the above when you really mean none of the above!"

You hit the nail on the head Catherine. Until we can change our system into a true democracy, we will have to exercise what little options are available to us.

Canadians have to get out of the mindset of voting for the lesser evil. Evil is evil, lesser or not. If enough of us can reject the "I settled for, because..." notion of voting and vote for real change (i.e. independents, "fringe" candidates, and "guys I'd like to vote for, but they don't stand a chance of winning", or NOTA where such candidates aren't running) we might just find that we'll get better government as a result.