[fvc-wat-disc] The Record Op-Ed by Brian Tanguay

[Bob Jonkman]

Hi all!  Just wanted to comment on the great Op-Ed article in The Record by Brian Tanguay. [1]

I think this will do wonders to raise the profile of the upcoming referendum.  To be honest, 
this is the first media coverage I've seen on this issue.  I'm a quidnunc (in the 1910 sense 
of the word), but haven't heard anything on the CBC about this (yet).

Brian's Op-Ed piece seemed to suggest that the October election would actually use MMP.  Only 
near the end of the piece did it become clear that the upcoming election will have a 
referendum on changing the voting system.  It will not actually USE a fair vote system.   Does 
anyone know the proposed wording of the referendum question?

I'm new to this Fair Vote list, although I've believed for a long time that election reform is 
necessary.  I followed with interest the CBC's reportage of British Columbia's efforts at vote 
reform. Still, I found it somewhat difficult to follow Brian's explanation of the mechanism 
proposed for a fair election.  Is there a (brief) explanation of the proposed system online?  
Is there a nice chart comparing MMP to STV to Winner-Take-All?

Finally, this week in the Woolwich Observer there's a letter to the Editor saying "Vote 'no' 
to the Ontario Citizen's Assembly or give up your right to representative democracy" (Robert 
White, Waterloo).  What sort of rebuttal can we present to show the fallacy of this argument?

Unfortunately, the Observer does not appear to have the Letters to the Editor online (although 
the http://woolwichobserver.com site is so Javascrippled it's difficult to tell). 

--Bob.


[1] 
http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Articl
e&cid=1179551710769&call_pageid=1024322168441&col=1024322596091

or also at http://tanguayoped.notlong.com




-- -- -- --
Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>         http://sobac.com/sobac/    
SOBAC Microcomputer Services              Voice: +1-519-669-0388       
6 James Street, Elmira ON  Canada  N3B 1L5  Cel: +1-519-635-9413
Networking   --   Office & Business Automation   --   Consulting
PGP:0xAE33E989 Fingrprnt:9FAF A6AC B567 BC10 8973 7CF0 CB27 0317