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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

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4 comments

  1. 1st Fallacy;
    The author writes; “Ranked ballots…do not work well for elections where voters are making their choice based in large part on their preference between multiple political parties, and where the legislature should reflect those preferences as a whole”.
    The Truth;
    Electors in each community vote for a representative for that community. While the candidates expressed affiliation with a Political Party may inform the elector, that affiliation is not set in stone and may be withdrawn at any time, as happens, and, as is a neccessary check and balance against potentioal tyranny from the Leader and or private club called ‘political party’.

    Ommission 1;
    The author writes; “The (counting) process continues until one candidate has the majority of the votes.”
    The Truth;
    The winner can be declared with 50%+ of “remaining eligible votes” which may easily be less than 50% of the initial number of participants.

    Fallacy 2;
    The author writes; “In an individual race – such as a race for a party leader…the system guarantees that the winner has the most widespread support among the electors and therefore a clear mandate to represent them.”
    The Truth;
    It often occurs that the Leader owes their victory to the last set of electors, and not to their original supporters, and as a result serves that small faction while ignoring the core that put them on the ballot in the first place. The mandate is not clear, it is very muddled.

    Unfortunately I have run out of time to continue right now; rest assured I could go on and on.
    Bottom line – Ranked voting has merits and drawbacks in democrcay. Proportional Representation is not democratic as it empowers private clubs and worse the leaders/elites of those clubs, directly in between the people and their voice in Government.

  2. It sure sounds like you could go on and on. And on. And on. And on.

  3. I joined your Facebook pedestrian group. I was shocked by what a load of astro turf it was. I left after I realized all it was was drivers telling pedestrians not to get uppity and to be happy with whatever gains they had been given. It was appalling.
    So I take any voting advice with a giant lump of salt. In fact I would go so far as to assume it’s the wrong advice.

  4. That’s not how Facebook groups work, Quinn. They’re discussion groups, we don’t control what members say, any member can express their opinion – we don’t censor them just because we disagree with them, or because what they say seems kind of clueless.