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Is the Canadian election hitting your news, in any form, at all? Just curious.
Jun. 23rd, 2004
Background: Fixed Election Dates are getting to be a hot topic in Canada, with some provincial governments introducing laws stating the specific dates of future elections, rather than leaving it to the Premier's or Prime Minister's discretion. Even Stephen Harper has talked about fixed dates for federal elections.
The upside: everybody knows when the next election is, there's no guessing.
The downside: everybody knows when the next election is, there's no guessing.
Question: Are fixed election dates a good thing?
My opinion: I can't stand the dithering over elections that happens from 3.5-4.5 years into a mandate, drives me up the wall. Plus, the party in power gets a big headstart in being ready for an election, even though these things really can't be hidden. I can't stand even more (even less?) the electioneering in the USA every four years. Their presidential elections start over a year before the actual voting day, and just get worse and worse every time! It would really suck to have that happen here. So I dunno if I like it or not.
The upside: everybody knows when the next election is, there's no guessing.
The downside: everybody knows when the next election is, there's no guessing.
Question: Are fixed election dates a good thing?
My opinion: I can't stand the dithering over elections that happens from 3.5-4.5 years into a mandate, drives me up the wall. Plus, the party in power gets a big headstart in being ready for an election, even though these things really can't be hidden. I can't stand even more (even less?) the electioneering in the USA every four years. Their presidential elections start over a year before the actual voting day, and just get worse and worse every time! It would really suck to have that happen here. So I dunno if I like it or not.
Previous debates in Halifax this week, Monday and Tuesday.
Tonight's was interesting. Very poverty-focused, which is good because those issues have been mostly ignored (despite Jack Layton's attempts to bring them to the fore). I didn't get to ask a question at all: the lineup was very long, the meeting was not really onto those topics at the time, and Alexa McDonough was wiping the floor with her competition, so I felt OK just leaving it at that.
But if I lived next to (say) Jason Kenney, it would be a different story. :-)
Tonight's was interesting. Very poverty-focused, which is good because those issues have been mostly ignored (despite Jack Layton's attempts to bring them to the fore). I didn't get to ask a question at all: the lineup was very long, the meeting was not really onto those topics at the time, and Alexa McDonough was wiping the floor with her competition, so I felt OK just leaving it at that.
But if I lived next to (say) Jason Kenney, it would be a different story. :-)