FairvoteWRC Discussion Night 2018-04-25
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Today's topic: Questions for candidates at ACMs
- Held
- Wednesday, 25 April 2018 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
- Location
- Community Room at Bread And Roses Cooperative, 307 Queen Street South, Kitchener Map
Other business
- FairvoteWRC will be participating in the Yes Cambridge! event to celebrate and encourage a vote in favour of ranked ballots in the referendum during the fall municipal election.
- There will be a meeting in mid-May, to be held at Sharon Sommerville's house.
- There was an article in The Record on Kitchener South--Hespeler PCO candidate Amy Fee's husband Craig Fee's improper use of his position as a radio announcer to make election commentary
- The Record: Kitchener DJ’s political antics prompt complaints
- Sharon Sommerville and others are vigorously pursuing this with complaints to Elections Ontario, and working on getting equal time on radio station 107.5 Dave Rocks
Questions for Candidates
- Are you going to support Electoral Reform?
- Separate your opinion from the party line
- Will the candidates only quote from their party policy?
- Separate your opinion from the party line
- What is your party's platform on Electoral Reform?
- What is your position?
- What's the plan?
- How do you plan to work towards Proportional Representation?
- If your party holds the balance of power in a minority government, will you make Electoral Reform a condition for forming a coalition or agreement?
- Debates? Do you favour including Green Party leader Mike Schreiner in the televised leaders debates?
- Andrea Horwarth has recently endorsed https://fairdebates.ca and Mike Schreiner
- Kathleen Wynne endorsed https://fairdebates.ca and Mike Schreiner right after the media consortium announced they would exclude Green Pary leader Mike Schreiner
- How would you increase the youth vote?
- Should 16 year olds have the right to vote?
- Ask about beefing up the citizenship curriculum
- The high school Civics course is only a 1/2 credit, make it a full credit?
- Include educational material in all curricula, eg. math and literature
- Is Democratic Representation a central Canadian value?
- How "Canadian" are you if you oppose that?
- Does your platform reflect that?
- Is Proportional Representation democratic enough?
- Is it right that all 42 Atlantic province (federal) seats are Liberal?
- Democracy is not just "everybody gets to vote"
- Start with "What is Democracy?"
- 1/2 of the electorate did not vote Liberal but still deserve a place at the table
- Campaign Financing
- Threshold for spending for political activities
- eg. Canadian Unitarian Council and Cambridge Naturalists
- Third-party regulations
- Third parties provide education, for a more informed decision
- Rich organizations have more influence than poor ones
- They can afford to register and hire a CFO, and pay for an audit
- Threshold for spending for political activities
- Candidates (Elected representatives) are not held accountable for election promises
- Excuses:
- "The financial books were worse than I thought"
- "The job is more complicated than I thought"
- "The previous government made a commitment, we now have a contractual obligation" (to follow through with their bad choices)
- Electoral Reform gives us more confidence that these promises will be fulfilled
- More cooperation between parties
- Proportional Representation prevents hijacking the conversation
- Ask about this issue as a question, how would you solve it?
- The correct answer is Proportional Representation, of course!
- Excuses:
- Increase the civics course to a full semester/credit
- Include political philosophy, nuances between Conservatives and Liberals, Neo-Cons and Neo-Libs.
- Add a civics component to all courses: math, language
- Study differnt Electoral systems and their consequences, eg. voting in Russia with 120% voter turnout
- Look at the mandate of Elections Ontario to teach electoral awareness in schools
- Municipalities: More controls from Elections Ontario
- Consistency for municipalities, eg. ranked ballots; electronic voting; require by-elections, not appointments to fill vacancies
- Voting is a community activity, a learning experience
- Voting publicly is a statement
- Municipalities: More controls from Elections Ontario