Canadians' appetite for naming their favourite restaurant is proving to be insatiable. With six weeks left in public voting for the 2013 Vacay.ca Top 50 Restaurants in Canada, two of the nation's most acclaimed establishments are in a tight battle for the People's Choice award -- which is determined by votes from Canadians.
I'm told that 30 is a big step in the long march from an idealistic youth to a staunchly conservative mid-life. I'm pretty sure I won't become any less idealistic in my approaching dotage. I will still advocate for these same policies; the only difference being that as an adult my opinions are taken seriously. Why do we have such low expectations for young people?
Currently, MPs only need to better their opponent by one vote to get elected. In the last general election, the Conservatives won 39.62 per cent of the popular vote but gained 53.90 per cent of the seats. There have been many discussions on how to fix that apparent unfairness. A more practical proposal would be a preferential ballot system.
What an exciting time to be a political addict in Canada. Who says Canadian politics is boring? People who aren't paying attention, that's who. First, the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, was removed from office. Second, we find out that Mark Carney got headhunted to the U.K. And elections, you know, the best sport ever? There were three! And they weren't boring, at all.
Tuesday, election day, is going to be a big day, there's no doubt about it. Americans when they go to the polls will be deciding the direction their country takes -- on the economy, health care, big or small government, taxes, marriage, abortion and foreign policy -- for the next four years. But I'd like to talk about what to my mind is an even bigger day -- Wednesday, the day after the election -- because one very important thing in America needs to change and Wednesday is when it has to start.
I am belatedly political -- having voted for the first time after I turned 40 -- most people don't know that about me yet all my life I have constantly heard and continue to hear this line thrown out as though the speaker originated the argument, "If you don't vote you have no right to complain." For the last decade I've certainly more than made up for lost time.
An electoral scandal has been brought to the Supreme Court, and will be precedent-setting in terms of what politicians can and can't get away with in elections. Some of the questions the Justices will be asking themselves: What kind of message will we be sending to future elections if we choose to ignore those violations? Is Elections Canada justified in its nonchalant attitude towards the occurrence of voting irregularities?
The answer to the problem of majority rule by the minority is to achieve electoral reform so that the electoral system is sound enough to itself produce a truly representative government. In the last election, the electoral system awarded 53.9 per cent of the seats to a party that won only 39.6 per cent of the votes cast, and allowed that party to form the government.
We need put aside current quick-fix approaches to youth voter mobilization that have limited effectiveness; be it vote mobs (sorry, Rick Mercer) or reaching out to just students -- and ensure that we're focusing on the more difficult to implement strategies that will actually lead to getting youth to the polls in the long run.
Perhaps the most common misconception is that young Canadians lack faith in democracy. Anyone who believes this simply hasn't looked at the evidence. Youth have just as much (or little) faith in our democratic process as their parents' generations, and it doesn't explain the difference in voter turnout.