Canada Takes A Bigger Step To The Right
Oct
15
For the past month I have been following the Canadian election. The last election was only 2.5 years ago (a month before Sariah was born) but Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister called an election this early because he said that the other parties were making it dificult for parliment to function well. I think he was hoping for a majority but that would be hard to form with 5 major parties competing for seats.
Canadians vote for a Member of Parliament for their riding (area) and which ever party has the most seats that party’s leader becomes the Prime Minister so quite different than how the US election works.
I do not think it was a good idea for Stephen Harper to call just a quick election that was 5 weeks from the day he called because it didn’t give many people living outside Canada an opportunity to vote. Last nights election actually had the lowest voter turn out in Canadian history with only 59.1% of eligible Canadians voting. Which is sad because 40% could make a big impact. A lot of people also couldn’t vote because of ID confusion at least it’s not like the US where people don’t need to show ID and show up to vote 75 times.
I loved Stephen Harper’s speech he seems like a wonderful family guy and the strongest leader we have had since Pierre Trudeau.
The Conservatives gained 16 seats while the Liberals lost 19 seats. Because of the declining economy worldwide the other party leaders have promised to work better with the Conservative party, hopefully they can all work effectively together to build a stronger Canada.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:50 am
The article states:
“there is a big difference between submitting bad registration cards and casting a “fraudulent vote.” Thanks to new rules for checking newly registered voters, it is unlikely that bad names will be added to the rolls or lead to fraudulent ballots.”
“An additional 65,000 applications have been disqualified because the information on the cards was incomplete, and 25,000 more have been deemed invalid because the voter was already registered,”
When you register to vote in the US, your name is put on a logg in your voting district. When you show up to vote you have to sign your name. So if you showed up 74 more times to vote, chances are you won’t be allowed to vote.
I also agree…40% of eligible voters not voting can really change the outcome of the election.
[Reply]
October 15th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
75 times for one person to vote is a big exaggeration but it is well known that certain organizations in the US register a ton of “imaginary” people and have people vote more than once and even have illegals vote. It is a lot easier for someone to vote who is not registered if all they have to do is sign a name. Having to show ID such as a drivers license or passport would make the voting a lot more honest.
[Reply]
October 16th, 2008 at 7:25 am
I don’t know where the information in this article was taken, but we’ve always been asked for identification (driver’s license with your current address) when we go to vote…even in primaries.
[Reply]
October 16th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Oh, and by “we” I mean Adam and myself. I don’t want to speak for everyone, though I hope it’s done everywhere.
[Reply]
October 16th, 2008 at 9:31 am
I didn’t know that some areas do ask for ID. JJ said that he has never had to so I assummed it was the same everywhere.
[Reply]