40 percent of Canadians vote same anywhere
Dennis Pilon's book The Politics of Voting raises good point of how PR would fight regionalism.
STV -- where voters vote for candidates, not parties -- and where change is fair and not random
Not only do voters vote for candidates under STV but also, because there are multiple open seats, each party slate usually (or always) contains names of multiple candidates so voters have a decision to make as per first preference.
Dual Member Plurality and the Politics of Voting
I read someone saying "The outcome of a dual member plurality system (where both the first and second place candidates are elected) would be close to proportional."
This bears closer scrutiny. I will use Dennis Pilon's book The Politics of Voting, or at least the portions of it I have read so far, as sounding board for the scrutiny.
Effective Voting
An "Effective Vote" is one that is used to elect someone. A vote not used to elect someone is a vote disregarded. There are a great many votes, often more than half, disregarded in First Past The Post elections,
Announcing new book When Canada had "Effective Voting” STV in Western Canada 1917-1971
Now announcing the publication of the first book dedicated to the overall Proportional Representation experience in Canada
Voting-System Changes in Canada Provincial systems
From Pilon The Politics of Voting (2016), p. 81
"Governments may get less, the same, or more support, and still be defeated..."
Dennis Pilon
The Politics of Voting. Reforming Canada's Electoral System (201
[referring to the alternation of parties in and out of power, that can happen under our non-proportional winner-take-all FPTP election system]
FPTP elections elect by plurality unfortunately - Governments rule by majorities
I think some people confuse what happens in district elections with what happens in government legislatures. And some unusually have the belief that the second is a copy of the first instead of the other way around, which many others, also mistakenly, think is the case.
Majority versus simple lead in votes. Quota produces standardized representation.
I notice that in New Zealand, yes the same place where very fair MMP is in place, the touchstone of our world-wide movement, it is said that receiving a majority of votes is reason for the election of a candidate when nothing of the sort is meant.
"When Farmers Changed Voting" 1921 Alberta
An article on Alberta's historic electoral reform published in most recent Alberta Views is surprising to me. ("When Farmers Changed Voting". June 2021)
UFA election in 1921 opened the door to electoral reform
It is said that the closer a party comes to power, the less it talks about electoral reform. A hundred years ago, Alberta had the rare privilege of seeing a party come to power in part on the promise of electoral reform and to see that government then proceed to do what it had promised.
July 18, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the election of the United Farmers government.
Vancouver electoral reform
Updated: May 9
An extract from the City of Vancouver website:
"Voting in an election is one of the most important things a citizen can do in their community and country. Voting:
Strengthens our democracy
Gives each and every voter a voice in their local government
Makes us a much stronger community."
However voting only does this if the electoral system is structured to provide these results.
[and present Block voting system is not strucurtred in best way to do this.]
Red Deer's present system not producing widely-approved council but ward election is no fix
Red Deer's Block Voting does not produce high voter turn-out nor large number of Effective Votes
STV for executive elections within organizations as for political elections
STV works fine for election of multiple executive members just as it does in political elections.
The United Farmers used STV for election of multiple directors to its provincial board in 1917-1918 and in 1920.
City PR possible through SNTV -- Give cities the right of self-determination!
Block Voting can be legally switched to a form of "fair representation".
Block Voting is used in many cities today, where multiple members are elected and voters cast multiple votes.
It can be easily switched to fair representation, by adopting STV or SNTV.
Existing election system flawed. Change to PR endorsed -- 1916 but could be any time
Here's a clear and damning look at the existing system in use in the old days. Note tht nothing has changed. This should be a clarion call for PR.
it is such a continuing theme - You can drop in whatever modern dates you want and the article would still work.
Let's stop the craziness!
Proxy Voting - power based on votes received
In addition to STV as presented in many other blogs, there are other reforms that create btter democratic accountability or reduce damage done by gerrymandering, etc. Proxy Voting is one of these.
Minority governments don't give all power to small parties
A worry of having minority governments is that a small party, representing the sentiment of only a small section of the electorate, will control the process.
This is sometimes called the tail wagging the dog.
And note that minority government are not only produced under proportional representation - they are often produced by winner-take-all First Past The Post elections
Canada's federal election system - the same as 150 years ago
Canada stands out for being among less than a handful of countries that have had the same political system for the last 150 years.
1987 Ontario election
Updated: 5 days ago
Following the 1985 election, the NDP backed the Liberal minority government.
The government fell after two years.
The NDP was unable to convince the bulk of voters that it should be given credit for the success of the Liberal government that it had supported. But it did receive more votes and a larger proportion of the vote than it had previously received.
However, due to the inefficiencies of FPTP, the NDP lost six seats.
Effective Voting - Pro-Rep in 1898 Ontario book
Updated: 5 days ago
Effective Voting. THE Basis of Good Municipal Government. AN EXPOSITION OF THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION was published by the Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario in 1898.
It explains proportional representation, which at the time meant Single Transferable Voting, the so-called British form of pro-rep
Directions to voters as Ireland adopts STV (1919)
Directions to Voters, Ireland, 1919
" Vote by placing the figure i in the square opposite the name of the candidate for whom you vote. You may also place the figure 2, or the figures 2 and 3, or 2, 3, and 4, and so on, in the squares opposite the names of other candidates in the order of your preference for them." (p. 43)
Proposed reform to British House of Lords could work for Canadian Senate
Updated: 5 days ago
Recent article on need to reform the British House of Lords has interesting parallels with the Canadian situation.
From: “Archaic disgrace”: Elections renew and refresh our politicians but what about our parliaments? Experts call for change on both sides of the border
(Mark Aitken, Sunday Post, April 18, 2021)
“Personally, I would take small steps because they’re the ones that tend to happen.
Aims of 1919 Calgary Strike leaders included reforms to forms of government and elections
The Western Canada Labor Conference held at Calgary, Alberta, March 13, 14, 15, 1919 was a groundbreaking meeting of labour leaders from across the western Canada. At a time when the Russian Revolution was shaking the foundations of traditional politics in Europe, these labour leaders met in Calgary, at the time a hotbed of labour radicalism.
Besides discussing labour issues, the new One Big Union and the use of strikes, even general strikes, the delegates also argued political issues and reforms of the existing - and undemocratic - voting and government systems that Canada workers suffered under
A Made-in-Canada PR system -- STV/MMP
Updated: May 15
Anita Nickerson, of Fair Vote Canada, remarked that
"A made-in-Canada PR system can be designed with the values Canadians care about foremost in mind.
Values such as
fair results,
a representative Parliament,
greater voter engagement, ...
STV/MMP could be a thing. Let's support local-option self-determination!
The recent PR 101 podcast produced by Fair Vote Canada mentions that Fair Vote Canada supports a system where STV is used in the district-level elections of a Mixed-Member Proportional system. The podcast is at:
FPTP's undemocratic results not just "a misalignment." We need PR, said Anita Nickerson
Anita Nickerson, coordinator of Fair Vote Canada, wrote in 2016 that recent elections showed need for PR despite a pundit shrugging them off. (Nickerson, "Under our winner-take-all electoral system, everybody loses", ipolitics, 2016 (online)).
Nickerson:
... "Most Canadians vote to be represented on policy by a local MP who shares their values and will advocate for them in Parliament. ...
By calling the distorted results of winner-take-all voting — and its consequences for Canadians — a “misalignment”, Ms. Smith misrepresents the nature of the problem.
Canada has (somewhat) broken out of two-party straitjacket
Luckily for Canada, we have had a a good (not great) record of third parties being elected to government at the provincial level and many federal candidates of third parties being elected to federal office, although no third party has yet attained power at the federal level.
And this despite the use of the FPTP system, which stifles representation of all the parties except the leaders in each district. (FPTP was used in all these elections except for provincial politicians elected through STV in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg from 1920s to 1950s, rural MLAs in Alberta and Manitoba elected between the 1920s and the 1950s, and a few other cases.
Alberta should be proud of its UFA government
Not only was the Alberta United Farmers of Alberta one of only two provincial governments to bring in proportional representation for the electons of at least some of its MLAs, but it was also collaborationist!
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (Labour) is applauded for reaching out to the Green Party for the formation of a coalition. She did not have to - she already had more than half the seats in the chamber, enough to pass any legislation her party desired.
The Farmers government in Alberta actually did the same thing almost a hundred years ago
Brief on Edmonton Electoral Reform, Tom Monto (2021)
March 1, 2021
Currently, ward elections that use First Past The Post see a majority of votes elect no one, while councillors are elected by a minority of the votes cast. The city's low turn-out of about 33 percent seems tied to this unfair state of affairs. Single Transferable Voting and the related system Alternative Voting (Instant Runoff Voting) guarantees majority election of representatives.
William Wallace on electoral reform (1927)
William Wallace was a British scientist who came to Alberta in 1907 for health reasons - back when Alberta was a sort of health spa - who took up school teaching north of Edmonton.
He spent much time pondering social issues and scribbled his thoughts and sent them to government official in Edmonton. They are preserved at the Provincial Archives.
"To meet efficiently the political requirements of the day, the political system of a country demands a dual system of electoral organization - in Neighbourhood groups and Occupational groups, simultaneously
[Occupational groups can be represented but only if compose representation differently than under the geographical district basis currently used in our FPTP elections, where only a single rep is elected in each place and where only one occupation is represented at any one time.]
Manitoba's STV/AV system 1920-1952 - not a failure as reported
Updated: Apr 15
The Winnipeg Free Press was among the first to call for Manitoba to change from the winner-take-all First Past the Post system to a system of proportional representation. In those days, pro-rep meant Single Transferable Voting. STV operated at the district level to see that in each district, multiple members were elected and that the crop of representatives elected in each election reflected the variety of voters' sentiments, by producing mixed representation, representation that belonged to more than just one party.
The Winnipeg Free Press in 1919 not only called for change from FPTP to STV but also put forward a specific proposal of how STV could work in federal elections.
This was reported in an article in the 2011 [Winnipeg] Real Estate News:
In a July 4, 1919, editorial, the Winnipeg Free Press claimed one large constituency should be adopted in each major Canadian city during federal elections, “returning three or more members. Voting should be by order of preference marked on one ballot comprising an alphabetical list of all candidates for this three or more vacancies. In the result a laborite or other minority voting party voting solidly for its own candidates would obtain one, two or three members according to the strength in the electorate and the support it might obtain from the other elements.”
[The system described, where there are multi-member districts but each voter casts just one vote - a transferable vote, is STV. The transferability of the votes is hinted at by saying "the support it might obtain from the other elements."] The newspaper encouraged the Liberal government of Premier T.C. Norris to “apply the Hare system [STV] to one large urban district of this province at the next provincial election ...”
As it turned out, this is exactly what the Manitoba government did as part of its overall scheme of electoral reform.
[The above paragraphs above and the following text is from
Bruce Cherney, "A Different Way of Voting - proportional representation system was once used in provincial elections", [Winnipeg] Real Estate News, 08/12/2011)...
Ease of adopting STV -- district-level PR in three easy steps
Updated: Apr 15
STV in three easy steps!
Single Transferable Voting, a form of district-level PR, is produced simply through three actions:
Matthias N. Forney's book Proportional representation (1900) raises good points
Updated: 5 days ago
Here are some notes from
Matthias N. Forney's book Proportional representation - a means for the improvement of municipal government with reports on the constitutionality in NY of a system providing for minority representation. 1900 .
[Hathi trust has readable copy online] Proportional Representation is advocated - first, because it is fair and just to all parties, and - second, because it is believed that it would promote the cause of good government.
The Group Government ideal and the UFA government's STV/AV system
The theory of proportional representation being pushed today is something like the Group Government concept put forward by Henry Wise Wood, leader of the United Farmers of Alberta, around 1919.
Wood's idea would have had occupational groups - Farmers, Labour, Manufacturers and Bankers - elect their own representatives who would then proportionately assemble in the legislature.
STV an unusual abbreviation. Do you prefer "transferable preferential voting"?
Updated: Apr 14
I have looked through old Alberta newspapers and don't find any use of the term "STV" in newspapers from 1920 to 1960.
STV is the abbreviation of Single Transferable Voting, a system that produces proportional representation at the district level.
How does STV work? How are votes counted? How does it produce such fair representation?
The vote-counting process under STV is straightforward - if a bit time-consuming.
Count all the votes and establish the tallies for each candidate.
This is the First Count.
Calculate quota. ...
Fleming - Essays on Rectification of Parliament. Part 5 - Essay No. 11 by "Equality" Part A
Essay No. 11 in Sandford Fleming's 1893 book Essays... on Rectification of Parliament was submitted under the pseudonym "Equality".
The author was likely a U.S. writer.
Essay No. 11 by "Equality"
Fleming - "Rectification of Parliament" Part 4. Essay No. 10 Catherine Helen Spence Chapters V to IX
This blog contains the last half of "Essay No. 10" from Sandford Fleming's 1893 book Essays...on the Rectification of Parliament. Submitted under pseudonym "Southern Cross" it is undoubtedly written by world renowned pro-rep campaigner Catherine Helen Spence of South Australia.
This blog contains Chapters V to IX and the appendices
Tasmania, Ireland, Malta and Canada - a certain commonality - STV
Tasmania seems an outlandish place, but for a good while western Canada was grouped with it.
By 1926 STV was being used to elect legislators in four countries in the world:
- Australia (Tasmania),
- the Republic of Ireland,
- Malta (then a British colony),
-- and western Canada (Alberta and Manitoba)
Fair from the start -- first election of Edmonton MLAs using STV, 1926
Updated: Apr 23
In almost all the actual STV elections in Alberta, vote transfers were not what produced most of the mixed, roughly-proportional representation elected. One or two candidates did change from the first-count leaders as compared to the end result. But most of the proportionality was produced in the simple use of multi-member districts and each voter casting just one vote.
This was seen as early as the first STV election of Edmonton MLAs. The representation elected in the 1926 Edmonton election was very different from the one-party sweep of Edmonton seats in 1921.
STV Pro-rep does not use complicated math nor should it, stated Robert Tyson, 1904
Updated: 5 days ago
Robert Tyson, a leader of Canada's pro-rep movement, wrote in 1904 that
"The bane of pro-rep has been the complexities introduced by those who aim at an impossible and needless mathematical accuracy. In most actual STV elections the candidates who head the poll on the count of first choices are those ultimately elected...
Therefore the transfers are of secondary importance. The essential point is the use of the single vote and multiple-member districts...
Library of Parliament "Elections and Ridings" only about successful candidates and riding boundaries
Funny thing.
Maybe it is just me but I can't get any election results out of the Library of Parliament website.
Only whom is elected.
If the Parliament thinks that that only the names of those who are elected are election results, then that is a shame.
Elections are about how people vote - not just whom is elected - in my mind anyway.
How do we know that those who are elected actually got more votes than any other candidate?
How do we know whether or not they got a majority of the votes in the district?
Either way they are elected. But it is a telling thing about the state of our democracy if many are elected without the support of a majority of voters in the riding they run.
Wetaskiwin federal riding -- since 1958 Conservative after Conservative. Is FPTP to blame?
The Wetaskiwin federal riding went from electing a labour/farmer radical to Conservative after Conservative after Conservative. Could some of this be due to the First Past the Post voting system that we have used in federal elections since the mid-1800s?
"No-hope" districts in Alberta elections. Drayton Valley, Grande Prairie are examples.
With First Past The Post winner-take-all elections in single-member districts, one party takes the seat in some Alberta districts over and over again. The voters who cast votes for others are constantly and continuously ignored.
Being constantly ignored, many stay home, partly causing the low turnout in today's elections in these "no-hope" districts. Or sometimes they narrow their choice on just a single opposition candidate, thus misrepresenting their actual sentiment. Or they vote just for the party that wins the seat without historic exception.
But only through shown inefficiency, by the presence of a massive number of Ineffective un-used, ignored votes, will our present electoral system be changed.
Alberta's Senators undemocratic from 1888 to the present
Rutherford, not McIntyre, Strathcona's "first elected representative"
Updated: Apr 24
Unlike what some people appear to think, Strathconians - and Albertans in a wider sense - had elections before Alberta became a province
[A.C. Rutherford was “Strathcona’s first elected representative in the new Province of Alberta", not McIntyre.]
Does districting matter? The case for city-wide districts
Grande Prairie suffered from low voter turnouts. This was particularly true when the city was split between two districts, with half in GP-Wapiti and half in GP-Smoky.
Only 27 percent of the eligible voters in GP-Wapiti came out to vote in 2008 and only 30 percent in GP-Smoky that same year.
Perhaps the low turnout was partially caused by the unnatural splitting of the city between the two districts.
BC referendums in brief -- 2005, 2009, 2018
BC's referendums on electoral reform
Unfortunate 2018 BC referendum question set by the Fraser Institute
It seems the 2018 BC referendum question was set by the Fraser Institute.It was unduly complicated. In 2005, 58 percent of the electorate had voted in favour of reform, including a majority of voters in 77 ridings out of 79, on a simple question of change or not. But it was overruled by a government that itself had been elected by only 58 percent of the vote in 2001 -- and was re-elected to majority government in 2005 with only 46 percent of the vote!
But in 2018 the referendum was a complicated two-step question with the last question being decided by transferable vote among three options each having two parts.
And we see that the Fraser Institute had suggested the style of question. This is not surprising as it generally opposed democratic reforms
So many reforms so little time. the Bright Line Watch survey
Notes from
"American democracy at the start of the Biden presidency"
Bright Line Watch January-February 2021 surveys
Four broad types of political rule
expert rule (“Having experts, not the government, make decisions according to what they think is best for the country”),
strongman (“Having a strong leader who does not have to bother with Congress and elections”),
military (“Having the army rule”), or
democracy (“A democratic political system”)
Mot U.S. survey respondents supported democracy.
Experts were asked their opinion on several reforms. Note that many are already in use in Canada...
Pro-rep could be Notley's legacy xwork
while Alberta's NDP shied away from proportional representation when it became clear it had a chance to win in 2015, perhaps this time could be different. It's an idea that aligns with the party's own values and beliefs, and its implementation could help break the hammer-lock that conservatives tend to have on Alberta politics by helping the NDP attract votes in the one place it needs them most: Calgary.
In order to form a government in 2023, the Notley NDP needs to do at least as well in Calgary as it did in 2015
Single Transferable Voting - Executive Summary
Single Transferable Voting ...
What tells us representation in one place is proportional but representation elsewhere is not?
Many people bandy about the term "proportional representation."
But how can you tell representation is proportional or not?
[much on minority rep produced by district contests]
Charter Challenge for Fair Voting 2021
Let our votes count!
All voters have equal rights under our Constitution!
Here's a message copied from a recent email:
The Animal Protection Party of Canada is considering intervening in Charter Challenge for Fair Voting.
Pro-rep is good for all parties. Time to bring it in before the next Alberta election
This letter to editor - in slightly abridged form- was published in Edmonton Sun, so thanks to the Sun for that.
=================================================
RE: "Polls a Wake-up call for Kenney, NDP leader says" (March 20, 2021)
Edmonton council an example of minority rule. Single Voting/multi-member wards are solution
In Edmonton's last election (2017), seven councillors (out of 12 in total) were elected with only a minority of the votes in their wards.
In most of these wards a combination of only two other candidates' votes, if it have been made possible and if voters had voted that way, would have overwhelmed the leaders' lead, and in those cases if they happened they would have seen someone with more general support be elected to represent the ward residents on council.
2017 Edmonton city election flawed due to ward system (March 28)
Edmonton city elections are conducted in 12 separate electoral contests.
This division into 12 different contests, and the division of the voters into 12 different sections, means that:
many votes are wasted --- more than half the votes did not elect anyone
many voters are disregarded --- more than half the voters did not see their choice elected
some voters cannot vote for whom they want to see on city council because they happen to live in a different ward,
it does not produce the election of the most popular candidates -- those who get more votes than others may not be elected.
This list of the 21 people who received the most votes in the 2017 elections -- yes elections, as there was not just one but 12 separate contests -- showed how unfair the election system is -
a person who received 5282 votes was not elected while a person who received 3455 was.
Is a country that uses First Past The Post even a democracy?
Updated: Apr 2
Here's what one acquaintance says:
------------------------------------
I think a good way to position a call for electoral reform might be to relate PR to why we are failing Canadians and the world on climate change, justice, healthcare, peace and prosperity ...
New Nfld gov't false majority, example of minority rule
Liberals won the recent Newfoundland and Labrador election, receiving a majority of the seats but with only 48 percent of the vote. Liberals won 22 out of the 40 seats so a false majority government was produced.
Lesser Slave Lake Prov. District gives impression of gerrymandering
Updated: Mar 29
Consider for example how the Lesser Slave Lake provincial constituency covers, in addition to two towns, 11 First Nations Bands, three Metis settlements and the entire rural municipality of Opportunity, also parts of three other rural municipalities (as reported in the Alberta Views, March 2021).
You would think if farmers were gathered together in a rural municipality, it would make sense to move them as one into a provincial district. The failure to do so leads some to suspect gerrymandering.
...
Average of 6 candidates running in elections now, FPTP's Achilles' heel
Our present First Past The Post voting system works best - wastes the fewest votes on average, produces the representation of the larges portion of voters - when only two candidates are in the running.
But on average more than six candidates run in each district in today's federal elections.
For that reason we need multi-member districts where a large number of seats allow the range of sentiment among district voters to be represented
Finally a book on Canada's overall PR-STV experience
(April 2021)
Now announcing the publication of the first book dedicated to the overall Proportional Representation experience in Canada
When Canada Had "Effective Voting" STV in Western Canada 1917-1971
68 pages. Photos. Tables. Lists. Timeline. $6
Supplementary Voting
Updated: 5 days ago
Supplementary Voting is a short-cutted STV system.
Majority support is required to win.
Voters mark first preference and one back-up preference.
Votes are counted.
If no candidate receives majority in the first count, all but the two most popular candidates are eliminated, and reference is made to the backup preferences marked on those ballots. With only two surviving, one or the other will necessarily have a majority when votes are then counted
Seattle's recent electoral reform, to runoff elections
Seattle has diverse city council (as mentioned in the blog about Kshama Sawant).
It was perhaps coincidental that Seattle's diverse council is the result of the first time council members were at least partially elected by wards in more than 100 years. I say it may be coincidental because certainly FPTP contests in single-member wards do little for diversity in Edmonton today.
On terms "at-large", "Block Voting". But know this, STV is not always foe to local representation
I may be accused of being technical about term "at-large" as used in phrase "at-large districts," versus term "multi-member districts." The distinction though is important. In Canada no STV elections were at-large, except for some - and not all - elections of city councilllors. Apart from those exceptions, STV was district-based, ie. to elect local reps ...
Kshama Sawant -- Seattle Socialist city councillor -- elected despite waste of votes, lack of STV
Recent Seattle elections have produced diverse councils. This is not due to STV or proportional electoral schemes. But apparently a more politicized culture and a more visible divide between classes.
By 2019 two political groups had emerged ...
Single-member districts are foe of representational governments
Updated: Mar 21
Here's a U.S. writer on how the U.S. must get away from its single-member districts if it is have a chance to elect representational governments.
I so agree. The same holds true for Canada
Klein Tory cuts, windfall of seats beyond popularity, then Alberta rolls in dough, 1993-2006
[Talking about] "Klein’s first government in 1993.
Yes, there were big cuts back then, initially to get the budget balanced and then to pay down the $23-billion debt.
Yet it wasn’t Klein who initiated this agenda. That was Liberal Leader Laurence Decore ...
Alberta sales tax - a gift to the rich
Recently I was involved in a discussion on how proportional representation would put a small party in control behind the scenes and how if such a small party wanted it could force in a provincial sales tax.
I responded thusly:
Much as I want to see the Alberta government address its problems in new ways and I believe PR would help it do that, I would not be in favour of PR if it actually meant that 10 to 20 percent of the people who want a provincial sales tax would be in the driver's seat.
While PR is sometimes known as minority representation, that is not the way it operates - it is majority rule, not minority rule. ...
Pro-Rep and Alberta Sales Tax
Updated: Mar 21
Those who think a minority government may be pushed to bring in a sales tax in Alberta - and applaud such a development - have probably not considered the full ramifications.
Soft approach is best said Nellie McClung of the WCTU
Updated: Mar 23, 2021
As wisdom passed on from one generation to another, we can learn from what Nellie McClung wrote in her autobiography The Stream Runs Fast.
One anecdote concerns what Nellie herself learned from Louise McKinney ...
New Brunswick's lopsided 1987 election ignited calls for reform
Calgary Herald, Nov. 1, 1987:
New Brunswick's lopsided election created skepticism of value of "one riding, one representative" electoral system
The lopsided 1987 New Brunswick election -- when the Liberal party won all the seats in the Legislature -- re-ignited calls for PR.
Hooper -- Winnipeg's STV survived its first severe test, 1920 (Feb. 22, 2021)
Ronald Hooper :
"Under the first severe test, the Winnipeg voting in the provincial election, proportional representation has been proved practicable when applied to any large city, according to R.S. Hooper, honorary secretary of the Canadian Proportional Representation society.
Mr. Hooper had charge of the counting of the ballots and states that the result should eliminate many of the objections held against the general adoption of the plan.
...
St. Albert Gazette -- Canada's not so fast electoral reform
Updated: Mar 13, 2021
From the St. Albert Gazette 2016:
Not so fast: a history of electoral reform in Canada
For nearly as long as Canada has been a country, there have been those looking to change the electoral system.
Feb 12, 2016 11:00 PM By: St. Albert Gazette
MMP as Sifton proposed in 1919
Feb. 22, 2021 (Updated: Mar 16, 2021)
Clifford Sifton, a Brandon MP who served as the Minister of the Interior (1896-1905) under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, endorsed proportional representation at the federal level.
He proposed a PR plan to have two-thirds of the MPs in the House of Commons elected in single-seat constituencies and one-third elected on the basis of party popular support.
======================================================================
Sandy Lake - the geographical centre of Canada
What is the geographical centre of Canada?
"Meet Kaden and Kaylee, students who are researching a forgotten piece of history. Andrew is a town one hour northeast of Edmonton. The town is named after a prominent Métis settler named Andrew Whitford. However, over time, the town’s Métis roots have been forgotten and most people know Andrew for having the world’s largest mallard and being home to many Ukrainian homesteaders.
"Labour must assist in keeping the economics of the country on an even keel", states Mayor Ainlay
Mayor Ainlay I wish to congratulate the labour unions in again issuing the Labour Annual. It is especially valuable at this time that labour take stock and survey in detail the position of labour in a changing world.
Rat Creek Rebellion spawned Edmonton Police Service
There were not many homestead registration offices across western Canada and a community possessing one became a focus of business activity. That is why Edmonton objected to losing its land office office in 1892. The resulting social unrest produced the founding of the Edmonton police force -- but not in the way you might think
Confederation - the merging of the remaining still-loyal British North America colonies
Canada became a country, the Dominion of Canada, in 1867.
Andrew Lake named after UofA geologist John Andrew Allan
This place in Alberta is named from the first name of a famous Albertan, one of a handful of place named that way.
Here is info about the man
The 1885 Resistance
The NWT, a HBC-dominated area, was granted to Canada in 1870, when the HBC gave up its royal charter. That was when the present-day provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and the present NWT became part of Canada
Saskatchewan River was a highway in the old days of low-energy usage
Travel especially for moving freight, was done by river and water as much as possible in the olden-days when self-propelled vehicles had not yet been invented. But note that this was the case until little more than two hundred years ago.
Alberta Eugenics -- Blame for forced sterilizations goes on Aberhart and Manning
Alberta's forced eugenic-inspired sterilizations are a blot on Alberta,s history. Premiers William Aberhart and Ernest Manning should be blamed for them
Daniel Boissevain -- a Red Lodge hero
Daniel Boissevain hailed from a wealthy Dutch family, but gave up that lifestyle when he saw the unfairness of luxurious living while others lived in poverty.
Capital gains given easy ride, compared to salaries and wages
Note that
"In Canada, 50% of the value of any capital gains are taxable. Should you sell the investments at a higher price than you paid (realized capital gain) — you'll need to add 50% of the capital gain to your income" (from Wealthsimple online)
Thus, people earning their money through wages or salaries have all their income taxable, but those who make a windfall through sale of capital, such as a second home, only pay tax on half that income.
William Wallace - an Alberta thinker and country scribbler
William Wallace (1862-1942) During his time in Alberta William Wallace was a school teacher and a local official. He may be most noteworthy for the extensive political writings he produced during the last years of his life.
William Wallace on electoral reform (1927)
William Wallace was a British scientist who came to Alberta in 1907 for health reasons - back when Alberta was a sort of health spa - who took up school teaching north of Edmonton.
He spent much time pondering social issues and scribbled his thoughts and sent them to government official in Edmonton. They are preserved at the Provincial Archives.
"To meet efficiently the political requirements of the day, the political system of a country demands a dual system of electoral organization - in Neighbourhood groups and Occupational groups, simultaneously
Parkland County's Geography - west of Edmonton
Parkland County stretches from Range 8 West of the Fifth Meridian to 25th Range West of the 4th Meridan, and from Township 50 to 55th, from the west boundary of St. Albert west to the Pembina River.
I love all the place names within the County
Manitoba and Northwest Farmers’ Union took on the HBC, the Canadian gov't (1883-85)
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"Farmers continue to hold meetings and form unions for their protection. A convention to be held at Winnipeg on 15th." (Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 8, 1883)
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In March 1883, the Qu'Appelle Settlers' Rights Association passed resolutions calling for parliamentary representation, land law reform, proper legislation for settlers and government assistance for immigrants.
Scona Garage/Keg Building in Old Strathcona
The Scona Garage/Keg Building has survived almost a 110 years. But old Otto Edinger built it well back then. And now with Beljan re-developing the building, it should be good for another long period of time.
Otto Edinger and son Albert built the Scona Garage in 1912. Housing was in short supply as thousands flooded into the city during those boom years.
22 apartments were built upstairs. Woodwork and skylights and other attractive elements made them into classy rental units.
A Race against Winter -- The Hectic Building of Edmonton House, 1795
Updated: May 5
This blog fits the hectic building of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Saskatchewan in autumn 1795. Like the "Bay men"'s construction that critical autumn, this blog is quick and dirty.
Forts of Edmonton - the story of the five Edmonton House's
Updated: Apr 15
Many people have expressed an interest to me in the presence of old fur-trading posts in Edmonton.
Fort-des-Prairies
Wikipedia has this to say:
Fort Edmonton was called Fort-des-Prairies, by French-Canadian trappers and coureurs des bois. (source unknown)
Morice in his book Dictionaire historique places the lower [upper?] Fort des Prairies near the present day of Edmonton. This is according to a footnote in an interesting book entitled Five Fur Traders of the Northwest, published by University of Minnesota Press. This is a compilation of reprinting of old diaries and journals kept by five explorer/ fur traders - Peter Pond, John Macdonell, Archibald N. McLeod, Hugh Faries, and Thomas Connor (available for reading on Peel's Prairie Province website
Alberta Farmers, government loans and Social Credit
Updated: Apr 25
1904 Federal election - Strathcona federal riding --
Colonel Gregory ran under the auspices of the Lacombe-based Farmers Association of Alberta. He spoke in favour of nationalization of the railways, protection for farmers and government loans to farmers. (Edmonton Bulletin, July 29, 1904)
Government loans, loans offered at lower interest rates than the private banks were demanding, was a major demand of farmers in those days when capital investment in pioneer farms was necessary.
Talbot -- Strathcona's first MP 1904
1904 November 3
General election results – Strathcona
Peter Talbot Liberal 3863
Orlando Bush Conservative 1878
Colonel John H. Gregory Independent 130
Colonel Gregory, identified on the ballot as Independent, ran under the auspices of the Lacombe-based Farmers Association of Alberta. He spoke in favour of nationalization of the railways, protection for farmers and government loans to farmers. (Edmonton Bulletin, July 29, Nov. 18, 1904)
... government loan
Alwyn Bramley-Moore and other MLAs were part of a fact-finding commission on the issue. They reported that there was great need for the kind of low-interest loans that had been brought into use in New Zealand. New Zealand is now admired for its fair electoral system of proportional representation, but since the early 1900s it has been admired for its public services and its "gas-and-water" socialism - municipal ownership of services where required, but with no great Marxist ideological principle.
Rutherford, not McIntyre, Strathcona's "first elected representative"
Updated: Apr 24
Unlike what some people appear to think, Strathconians - and Albertans in a wider sense - had elections before Alberta became a province
[A.C. Rutherford was “Strathcona’s first elected representative in the new Province of Alberta", not McIntyre.]
COVID = Opportunity for Disaster Capitalism
Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism talks about how corporations benefit from disasters, getting government funds to address widespread destruction, and then how they use their workers and lobbyists and machines to address the disaster but also to disrupt local social ties, local government power and gain great profit and to gain power which they then use to extract profits both in the short and long terms.
We see something of this today caused by COVID
Brenda Bellingham’s novel Storm Child shows Fort Edmonton (March 20, 2021)
Alberta author Brenda Bellingham her novel Storm Child
Alberta sales tax - a gift to the rich
Recently I was involved in a discussion on how proportional representation would put a small party in control behind the scenes and how if such a small party wanted it could force in a provincial sales tax.
I responded thusly:
Much as I want to see the Alberta government address its problems in new ways and I believe PR would help it do that, I would not be in favour of PR if it actually meant that 10 to 20 percent of the people who want a provincial sales tax would be in the driver's seat
Property Transfer Tax
Updated: Mar 20
One way suggested in the most recent issue of the Alberta Views (April 2021) to increase government revenue of the Alberta government is to bring in a ... Property Transfer Tax.
This would be a tax paid by the buyer when a property changes hands, based on market value as assessed. ...
"Ancient Song", poem from 1912 - or older?
Here's the start of an old poem with a MESSAGE!
No, Don't be scared..
Capitalism and command economics in computer game Civilization
I know it is just a game but still...
in Sid Meier's Civilizations computer game (and possibly the board game of same name too for all I know)
if you switch to capitalism, you increase the profitability of the economy. The government makes more money.
But if capitalism is so good, how come the player exerts control of his or her civilization through command economics
Two fables of social justice
Updated: Mar 12
“The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe. For the axe was clever & convinced the trees that because his handle was wood, he was one of them”
--- West Asian Fable
Old Strathcona Railway station to be more hidden
Updated: Mar 19
"Proposal to add a seven-storey, 125-unit residential building south of the historic CP Rail Station on Gateway Boulevard (now MKT Market) and a three-storey sea-can market to the north. Beljan Development, which owns the land, including the station building, also wants to lease the adjacent city park ...
Pro-Rep and Alberta Sales Tax
Updated: Mar 21
Those who think a minority government may be pushed to bring in a sales tax in Alberta - and applaud such a development - have probably not considered the full ramifications. ...
Politics does not produce cut and dried rules
There are rules and then there are rules.
There has been much written about respect for authority in Canada and sometimes it is in the shape of comparison between this country and the U.S.
My view is that here is more trust between government and the people in Canada than in the States.
But at the same time that has be to be juxtaposed with these phenomena ...
Soft approach is best said Nellie McClung of the WCTU
Updated: Mar 23, 2021
As wisdom passed on from one generation to another, we can learn from what Nellie McClung wrote in her autobiography The Stream Runs Fast.
One anecdote concerns what Nellie herself learned from Louise McKinney ...
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