OK, here goes.
You vote for a MP (member of parliament)
Paper ballots with one mark, easy to count (quickly) and verify
Party with the most MPs elected wins, forms government with the winning party's
leader as Prime Minister
Sometimes a party has a clear majority (previous 4-5 elections), sometimes a
minority (this election)
Pretty straight forward.
No hanging chads, never very many recounts (rules for that are clear), and
never any judicial appeals. And guess what, no Electoral "College" (haven't
any of those clowns earned their degrees yet?) to ensconce a President that the
people didn't vote for.
Saanich (as in the riding of Oshawa this year where a Conservative took the
election in spite of a plurality of votes for Liberal and NDP candidates) can
elect an MP who did not get a clear majority because there are more than two
Tweedledum and Tweedledumber parties that have enough support to garner
significant votes. In practical terms in Canda, this keeps the two
right-leaning parties from going too whacko. Things like medicare, Canada
pension plan and unemployment insurance are the product of minority governments
which had to cooperate and compromise to function.
Earl who will watch the party on Parliament Hill on CBC.
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 7/1/2004 at 7:06 PM Mike wrote:
>Now someone can try to explain for me the Canadian electoral process.
>Makes Florida's seem downright straight forward. For example in the
>Saanich Riding (where did that name come from?) which is just over the
>line from here centrist and left parties tallied about 70% of the vote.
>So of course they will be represented by the conservative candidate,
>Lunn. Go figure. I can understand the call by some for proportional
>representation and a fixed election date.
>
>mike
>who may go watch the fireworks over Victoria tonight.
>
>
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