zark wrote:So, do you think that voters should be forced to vote? they do it in Australia. I'm not sure , but I think they get fined fifty dollars.There are people out there that use the excuse of ..."not voting is making a statement". To me , it means you're fat and lazy, but that's just my opinion.
Just go out and vote.
I don't think Harper will get his majority, so expect things to get worse. Another election within 2 yrs. Harper does not play well with the other children, and he doesn't talk to media.
That fighter jet project of his is sounding dumber.
This is a good balanced view of compulsory voting:
http://geography.about.com/od/political ... ryvote.htm
Not sure there are huge positives or negatives either way.
There are huge numbers of Aussies here in Hong Kong and they say that those who do not want to vote consider their AUS$20 fine a cost that comes up every 4 or so years - not a big deal to them. If you fight in court and lose the fine is more like AUS$50.
I like the idea of generating civic interest more positively and strongly believe that dropping the voting age to 16 or 17 and letting high school students vote in Federal elections (and provincial) would possibly be the most significant means of generating a life long interest in voting.
I got curious about politics in 1962 and 1963 fed elections while in high school as my North Van HS friend's dad was President of the local Tories who were up against soon-to-be Minister of Fisheries, the Hon. Jack Davis. I helped out but our guy lost. Later as I left university I realized I was more liberal on social issues than the Conservatives were then (but back then the Tories weren't as strong in religious values).
In 1972 when I ran and came third in New West federally we did a number of all candidate debates at high schools in New West and Centennial and to this day am very proud of how good the student questions were and how broad their range of interests in topics were. There questions were far more policy oriented than in the all candidate meetings. In business in the 1990s I ran into a person who said his interest in politics was spurred by that one meeting we did at Centennial HS. At all candidates meetings after that I met parents of high school students who said their son or daughter who got them out to our meetings. I was stopped in McDonalds on North Road and in New West by students. My biggest political blunder was not running again in 1974 as our candidate lost by some 300 votes. I got double what the Lib polls projected for me and on election night the head of the campaign told me if they knew I would do that well they'd have given us some funding!
Youth voting and putting the voting booths as they do at schools would get them voting. If we older folks fear what they'd do then we'd have to get out and vote and beat their votes. All good for democracy.
I would love to see politics back away from the hostility of today (US style) and more on the civility that was real in 1970s and 80s. I had a meeting in Ottawa with staff of the PM's office while on a business trip there six months after the election. As I walked up the drive in the April 7th snow(!) a van stopped and this MP was waving at me to get it. It was Stuart Leggatt the NDP who won that election. He invited me to meet that night for drinks and meet the NDP caucaus who would be there in their offices about 8 pm as the House sat late! Despite being a Liberal and despite the knowledge that I might run again they were all very gracious as all parties were back then. It might be there but I just don't see it.
In BC when WR Bennett was leader of the opposition and Alec MacDonald was Attorney General (1974) I was in the AGs office for a meeting with the Deputy AG and someone came in asked if anyone had seen Alec. The reply: "last time I saw him he was off to play tennis with Bill Bennett."
We need more civility and more ideas in politics today.
We need gov'ts that believe for them to do better we need families and young to do better. I am shocked at how strident so many young people can be today on issues where they are simply getting a poorer deal than like in post secondary education than those who are setting the prices today got when they were young and good paying jobs were plentiful.
As George Shultz - Republican - just this year said about the USA - do more R&D as this will spin off the jobs. The irony is that his idol Ronald Reagan has been the most influential politician of the 20th C in getting gov'ts of all stripes including Canada to do less in funding innovation.