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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Are there really "losers" in a democracy?

Harper's constant "loser parties" discourse, repeated once again this week in the 5-year-summary interview for CBC, really got me thinking whether he understands how a parliamentary democracy is supposed to work (no doubt, he does understand how he makes it work for his and his banks/corporations advantage).
Does a party really "win" if they get less than half of the votes? To follow the same line of thought, does the party really "win" if it gets 100% minus 1 vote? I'm really sorry for Stephen Harper (and Michael Ignatieff, for that matter), as one day the truth will manifest itself to them, the fact that unless we are in a 2-party system or a 1-party system, both of which are made specifically for those rulers and groups that cannot stand to be called or considered "losers", there are, actually, no "losers" in a truly democratic and equal and fair parliamentary system. A party that gets 1% of the vote is a winner as much as the party that gets 45% or, however unlikely, 60%.
If each Canadian's vote is of equal value and we all build this country together, then why would the opinions expressed by groups be evaluated only on the basis of numbers, percentages, seats?

2 comments:

  1. I think we all lose in a first past the post system as the full breadth of Canadain's hopes and dreams are not represented in Parliament, robbing us of our full potential as a people and nation

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kev,
    I agree completely. That's what I meant by the reference to "a truly democratic and equal and fair" system.
    AM

    ReplyDelete

I greatly appreciate your comments!