Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
General Politics Discussion
Perhaps the idea that we're voting for a person is a bit of self-delusion, but it's a fiction that appeals to me nevertheless.
Reply


Our system is built on these little fictions... It does not appeal to me to have more party hacks sitting in the house because their name was on a list from their party leader. Who do they work for? I also think that STV style rankings encourage more moderation at the extremes and hopefully makes candidates at least try to appeal across parties in their own riding to get more ranked votes.
Reply
(04-29-2022, 09:37 AM)bravado Wrote: Our system is built on these little fictions... It does not appeal to me to have more party hacks sitting in the house because their name was on a list from their party leader. Who do they work for? I also think that STV style rankings encourage more moderation at the extremes and hopefully makes candidates at least try to appeal across parties in their own riding to get more ranked votes.

The reality is that the current FPTP MPs vote on party lines on nearly every vote of substance: we have party discipline in parliament as well as in the provincial legislatures. So, while your MP may occasionally advocate on a local issue, he or she will still vote with the party. So, one could argue that they are all "party hacks" in the end.

And as for the option of not having party discipline, you can observe the lobbying and pork barrel politics that result just by looking at the congress on the south side of our border.
Reply
Yesterday, Day 2 of the Women's Municipal Campaign School ran. If you're interested in learning more about the school, visit https://learnhowtorun.com/ If you're on Twitter, you can see the tweets summarizing yesterday's speakers, here: https://twitter.com/WRWomenRun
Reply
Not sure the best place for this, but I wanted to share a new thing I'm working on (if that's allowed). It's a substack page called Citified that will focus on urban issues and local politics. You can find it here if that interest you at all Smile https://citified.substack.com/
Reply
(05-12-2022, 06:33 AM)dtkmelissa Wrote: Not sure the best place for this, but I wanted to share a new thing I'm working on (if that's allowed). It's a substack page called Citified that will focus on urban issues and local politics. You can find it here if that interest you at all Smile https://citified.substack.com/

An excellent first article, on the Debbie Chapman-proposed moratorium. I could quote lots of bits from there, but this is really the crux of the matter:
Quote:And while I agree that city- or region-wide zoning plans can be beneficial, allowing variances and amendments is one of the only tools municipalities currently have to ensure developers include certain community benefits in their proposals.

I encourage others to read as well!
Reply
Doug Ford won which really sucks, but Del Duca lost his own seat which is absolutely hilarious so at least I got a laugh out of this otherwise depressing election haha. What a worthless politician. He made Andrea Horwath look more competent. He actually managed to make the OLP lose official party status. Hopefully this moron has enough brain cells to resign.

The NDP is so far coming in second place as of this post (current seats...PCPO: 80; NDP: 29; OLP: 9 lmao) which is great to see. Maybe more Ontarians will take them seriously over the next 4 years. If they can get Horwath to finally fuck off maybe they'll stand a better chance next election.

Edit: Both Del Duca and Horwath are stepping down. Good riddance.
Reply


(06-02-2022, 10:12 PM)ac3r Wrote: Del Duca lost his own seat which is absolutely hilarious so at least I got a laugh out of this otherwise depressing election haha. What a worthless politician. He made Andrea Horwath look more competent. He actually managed to make the OLP lose official party status.

The CBC election actually has the Liberals gaining three seats, so Del Duca didn't make that situation worse, he just couldn't turn things around. (Then again, neither could Horvath, as NDP looks to be losing nine seats.)

Del Duca lost his own seat as he ran in the heart of Tory-dominated 905.

Overall, little changed in this election. But I'll still take this any day over a typical US election.
Reply
(06-02-2022, 10:12 PM)ac3r Wrote: Doug Ford won which really sucks, but Del Duca lost his own seat which is absolutely hilarious so at least I got a laugh out of this otherwise depressing election haha. What a worthless politician. He made Andrea Horwath look more competent. He actually managed to make the OLP lose official party status. Hopefully this moron has enough brain cells to resign.

The NDP is so far coming in second place as of this post (current seats...PCPO: 80; NDP: 29; OLP: 9 lmao) which is great to see. Maybe more Ontarians will take them seriously over the next 4 years. If they can get Horwath to finally fuck off maybe they'll stand a better chance next election.

Edit: Both Del Duca and Horwath are stepping down. Good riddance.

OLP lost their official party status after the 2018 election. CBC is currently predicting Libs are going to have one more seat in the new Parliament.

In local results, it looks like Belinda Karahalios was the only local MPP to lose her seat. Fife and Lindo both had solid wins.
Reply
Yeah, I mean lost in that Ontario once again said no to them and robbed of having party status. They should just give up for good, maybe they we could repair this province.
Reply
(06-02-2022, 11:09 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(06-02-2022, 10:12 PM)ac3r Wrote: Del Duca lost his own seat which is absolutely hilarious so at least I got a laugh out of this otherwise depressing election haha. What a worthless politician. He made Andrea Horwath look more competent. He actually managed to make the OLP lose official party status.

The CBC election actually has the Liberals gaining three seats, so Del Duca didn't make that situation worse, he just couldn't turn things around. (Then again, neither could Horvath, as NDP looks to be losing nine seats.)

Del Duca lost his own seat as he ran in the heart of Tory-dominated 905.

Overall, little changed in this election. But I'll still take this any day over a typical US election.

While I agree with you completely the thing which terrifies me the most is that I see us moving towards the US.

It's both a thing we are doing, and also, the nefarious influences (and I don't use that word dramatically) which are pushing the US away from democracy and towards fascism are investing here as well.

I'm so frustrated that DoFo won again. The thing which kills me on this is the 413. We fought so hard to kill it under the liberals, and now it is going to go ahead anyway.

That being said, I'll be blunt here, given the voter turnout....the people in Ontario (in general only, not you folks, or anyone I know really) have earned the bad governance they are going to receive.
Reply
(06-03-2022, 05:40 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: That being said, I'll be blunt here, given the voter turnout....the people in Ontario (in general only, not you folks, or anyone I know really) have earned the bad governance they are going to receive.

Going forward, for the next 4 years we deserve the treatment Alberta usually gets. This province should feel ashamed.
Reply
(06-03-2022, 05:40 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: That being said, I'll be blunt here, given the voter turnout....the people in Ontario (in general only, not you folks, or anyone I know really) have earned the bad governance they are going to receive.
I get the need to vent after a frustrating election, but this is such complete BS. We have a broken electoral system in this country, and the NDP led such an uninspiring campaign - mostly telling people why not to vote for Del Duca, or why a vote for Person X is a vote for the PCs - that I don't think it's remotely fair to criticize voters for not showing up when there is absolutely no one to vote for.
Reply


Glad that Laura Mae got to keep her job.
Reply
(06-03-2022, 07:20 AM)jamincan Wrote:
(06-03-2022, 05:40 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: That being said, I'll be blunt here, given the voter turnout....the people in Ontario (in general only, not you folks, or anyone I know really) have earned the bad governance they are going to receive.
I get the need to vent after a frustrating election, but this is such complete BS. We have a broken electoral system in this country, and the NDP led such an uninspiring campaign - mostly telling people why not to vote for Del Duca, or why a vote for Person X is a vote for the PCs - that I don't think it's remotely fair to criticize voters for not showing up when there is absolutely no one to vote for.

I can't agree with this. I find it extremely selfish to look at the past four years of decisions the Conservatives have made, and look at the alternative platforms and believe that it doesn't matter. These results matter a lot to healthcare workers, educators, disabled folks and many, many more. 

There are a lot of reasons people couldn't vote this election and there are a lot of reasons people chose not to vote. Choosing not to vote this election wasn't making a point about bad choices it was making a choice in favour of the status quo.
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 4 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links