[fvc-wat-disc] The Vote Has Been Counted And The Question Is What Do Liberals Stand For?

Jay Judkowitz judkowitz at gmail.com
Thu Jun 1 13:46:54 EDT 2017 

Folks,

      Here is my Old American / New Canadian view on the coverage.  I
apologize in advance if this seems overly negative or culturally
mismatched, but these are my observations as best as I can articulate them.

      Coming from the US, this whole thing has been a bit surreal.  This is
probably the most important structural question in all of Canadian politics
in decades and it had support in the end from nearly half the MPs who chose
to vote.  Usually importance + close votes = controversy and coverage.
Yet, this got approximately 0 coverage.  Yeah, there were a few articles
and op eds.  Mr. Cullen did an amazing job trying to rally support across
the entire country with his town halls.  And, of course, there were the
tireless and amazing efforts of all of you on this list - I'm inspired by
your work.  But, by US standards, this was a near complete blackout.  The
easiest way to prevent positive change is not to shout it down, but to
ignore it.  And the politicians allowed the press to ignore this.

      If there were an issue in the US that promised/threatened to change
the balance of power of the major parties for generations, was tightly
contested, and involved the leader of the country breaking a promise made
1600+ times, this would be front page news every day for months.  How many
non-activist friends, neighbors, and co-workers even knew the vote was
happening or had an opinion on it?  How many t-shirts, lawn signs, posters,
or pins did you see?  How many MPs had town halls on the topic?  How many
press conferences were called by the opposition party leaders to use the
bully pulpit and set the terms of the discussion publicly?  How many front
page news stories were written?  How many network and cable news stories
presented it?

       Let me think of how many things in my casual observance got more
attention from the nightly news than this

   - Trump, Trump, and more Trump
   - A new train
   - Minimum wage
   - Provincial party leader elections
   - Handshake styles of world leaders
   - Local crime reports
   - Weather
   - Hockey
   - Curling
   - (And I swear this is true) A woman getting arrested for climbing a
   construction crane

      It was amazing to me that no one even bothered to name the vote.  I
hunted down the HOC description of the vote and it was "That the Third
Report of the Special Committee on Electoral Reform, presented on Thursday,
December 1, 2016, be concurred in."   20 words and 124 characters.  In
today's world of tweeting, that leaves 16 characters for adding color.
Seriously?  In the US, the pro side would have called this the "Make your
vote count vote", the "Saving multi-party democracy vote", or the "No
Trumps for Canada vote".   The anti-side would have called this the
"Empowering extremists vote".  But, neither side did any creative marketing
on this at all and the result was predictable, a win for the status quo and
the will of the leader of the party in power.

      I'm not saying that we should have American style hack and slash
politics.  In fact, of of the great things about PR, if enacted, would be
the ratcheting down of rhetoric and the creation of incentives for parties
to cooperate and compromise.  But, something this big and this disruptive
to whoever is currently in power needs to be really wanted and demanded by
the people or it just can't pass.  There has to be not just a recognition
that this is a good idea, but that it's something that our collective
future depends on.  People need an greater awareness and much more
emotional connection to what's at stake.

       I love that Canadian media and politics reflects the sober and
(personally not politically) conservative nature of the country itself.
It's one of the reasons I'm here and not down in the US.  But, we're
talking about passing something that is by its very definition against the
short term interests of whoever has the majority of the power.  That really
does call for a different approach towards visibility and marketing of the
issue.

      I apologize again for the rant.  And, I apologize for coming in late,
not doing nearly as much work as anyone else on this list, and then seeming
critical of the outcome.  I'm still learning Canadian politics and may be
wildly off base here.  I am only taking the risk in writing this in hopes
that maybe my outside perspective contains some nugget of insight that may
be helpful for our next run at the issue.

      Thanks so much for having me in the group.  I'm excited for our
prospects in the long term.

Take care,
Jay

On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 11:01 AM, Evan Rosamond <erosamond at worldline.ca>
wrote:

> There's also http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/sean-
> casey-electoral-reform-1.4140596 from PEI about Sean Casey's part in the
> debacle.
>
>
> On 6/1/2017 8:44 AM, Jennifer Ross wrote:
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/31/liberal-electoral-
> reform-pledge-ndp-vote_n_16900086.html
>
> All I could find.
>
> On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 8:33 AM, Dave Arthur <arthurd23 at bell.net> wrote:
>
>> Has anyone seen any reference at all in any of the media about the result
>> of the vote yesterday on the ERRE recommendations?
>> What does that say?
>> Dave
>>
>> *From:* Jennifer Ross
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, May 31, 2017 10:39 PM
>> *To:* FVC Waterloo Region Discussion
>> *Cc:* fvc-wat-announce at listserv.thinkers.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [fvc-wat-disc] The Vote Has Been Counted And The Question
>> Is What Do Liberals Stand For?
>>
>> Further to that, we had a provincial election in Nova Scotia yesterday or
>> the day before.  In spite of a laundry list of improvements made by
>> Elections Nova Scotia, turnout plummeted.
>>
>> Read this article and especially the comments!
>>
>> http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/record-low-voter-t
>> urn-out-nova-scotia-1.4139626
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 10:03 PM, Sharon Sommerville <
>> sharonsommerville at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear FairVoting Supporters,
>>>
>>> Today, the House of Commons voted 159 to 146 against adopting the
>>> recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee. Two Liberal MPs
>>> voted for the motion: Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York) and Sean
>>> Casey (Charlottetown).  Our thanks to MPs Erskine-Smith and Casey for
>>> keeping the promise they campaigned on and standing up for what they
>>> believe in.
>>>
>>> Our local Liberal MPs did not support the motion.  We have heard a
>>> variety of reasons: couldn't support an NDP motion, couldn't support a
>>> referendum and no national consensus on change or a voting system.
>>>
>>> We elected the Liberal Party to offer leadership on electoral reform.
>>> For electoral reform, leadership means making the case for change.  Instead
>>> of leading, the LPC hid behind a bogus consultation process and claimed
>>> there was no consensus.
>>>
>>> Strengthening Canada's democracy through establishing a fair and
>>> equitable electoral system is non-partisan issue because democracy is a
>>> non-partisan issue.
>>>
>>> There are a number of ways to deal with a referendum if there is the
>>> will to do so but if you are looking for a backdoor, you will find one.
>>>
>>> *The movement toward a fair voting system for Canada isn't over, it
>>> isn't even close.*
>>>
>>> More Canadians than ever understand the need for electoral reform. We
>>> will keep working until Canada has an electoral system that serves
>>> Canadians not just the two largest political parties.  This issue is alive
>>> and will be an election issue in 2019.
>>>
>>> Tonight Liberal MPs across the country should be asking themselves what
>>> they actually stand for; as Anita Nickerson's outstanding letter in
>>> yesterday's Record said: if you don't represent your campaign promises and
>>> you don't represent the evidence and you don't represent the wishes of your
>>> constituents, what do you represent?
>>>
>>> See the full letter here:
>>>
>>> https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/7341308-government-s
>>> hould-keep-its-promise/
>>>
>>> So many thanks to everyone who phoned their MPs, who put in hours
>>> canvassing, who visited your MP or wrote letters to the Record and their
>>> MP.  What an amazing effort and a great campaign! Thank you all!
>>>
>>> FVC-WR will be at the tri-Pride festival this Saturday from noon to 8
>>> pm in Victoria Park. It is always a great day and the weather promises to
>>> be sunny and warm.   Please come and see us there!
>>>
>>> Onward!
>>> Sharon
>>> for FVC-WR
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> No other Western democratic country concentrates as much political power in
>> the hands of one person as Canada does with her Prime Minister.
>>
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> --
> No other Western democratic country concentrates as much political power in
> the hands of one person as Canada does with her Prime Minister.
>
>
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