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Well, well, well...

The Liberals are neck-and-neck with the Conservatives in the polls and are looking for an issue to galvanize the elusive 18-35 year old citizens into voting.

If only there was something contentious, like making it illegal to copy legally purchased materials or record TV. Something like "You could go to jail or face $20,000 for owning a modded XBox." Telling young professionals that content will be decided not by the CRTC, but by cable providers and American lobby groups. If you buy a DVD for your kids and let them use a ripped copy to skip the ads and keep the copy clean, that's a violation of WIPO, which could jail you and bankrupt you. Using any operating system that bypasses security features would do the same, too.

If only there was a way to contact your local Liberal, Bloq, and NDP MPs and let them know how you, as a citizen and registered voter, think this is worth an election.

Imagine the ads:
Have a guy walking down the street, listening to an MP3 player. A van pulls up next to him, and RCMP with guns order him to the ground. One policeman grabs the player, looks through it, says, "full of mp3s" to another one. They arrest him and put him in the van.

Announcer: "This is the Conservative plan for copyright reform."

Allowing people to vote online isn't going to solve the turnout problem as long as we have a federal election every couple of years. Canada has had something like four federal elections in the last five years, which is pretty ridiculous. The voters are tired of it, and they're demonstrating that by not bothering to vote. I'm not saying this is the best way to demonstrate disgust, but the ability to vote online isn't going to fix the real problem.

Indeed. We have so many elections because the last three governments are minority governments. Why is that?

Because of the Bloc Québécois. Ever since Charlottetown, the last attempt to have Québec ratify the Constitution, failed, Québec has finally realized that the federal political parties have nothing to offer us.

So, we’ve been voting bloc. The federal parties are being denied a whole province, which holds 25% of the canadian population.

That 25% of the population has been denied the proper attention given to other english provinces; in fact, we are treated the same way blacks are treated in the US. We are “the white niggers of america”.

For about 10 years, the liberals were able to secure solid majorities despite the Bloc because were still reeling from Mulroney’s conservative excesses (which have resulted with the tories ending up with 111 less seats in parliament once the 1993 election was over — yes, you read me properly, that’s a hundred and eleven times; from 222 to 2), but the latest liberal scandals have caught up with them, and have prevented them from mustering enough support to, have a majority government.

And the Bloc is still there to say to Canada “it’s time to start to listen to Québec”.

And as long as Canada will not listen to Québec, we will make sure that the House of Commons will be deprived of a majority government.

Though fucking noogies. You thought you could get away with not listening to Québec? Well, that time is over Canada.

Fuck you very much.

Here in Canada, we actually have four parties currently represented in Parliament. This is down from the five that were there before (two parties merged; nobody got destroyed at the polls).

However, since Confederation, the Prime Minister has been the leader of either the Conservative or Liberal/Whig party. There are other parties, and they do hold seats, but none of them have ever formed the federal government. However, some have won provincial elections.

Handy links:

• Conservative Party of Canada
• Liberal Party of Canada
• New Democratic Party of Canada
• Bloc Québéois
• Green Party of Canada (never elected any members to Parliament, but tends to get a fair number of votes at the polls)

The big problem with the current machines is that they combine both those steps & don't provide any means of independent public oversight.

Nail, meet hammer. Right on the head.

A great deal of the problem with American vote counting, as opposed to Canadian, is that, as another reply stated, with a two-party system, the second party doesn't really care if the first party gets knocked off this time around. Their position is just about as powerful; their 'leader' just doesn't get to sit in the big comfy chair and hold the remote.

In Canada, by contrast, we have the following parties:

1. The Liberals . This party has been in power the most often. They are fiscally conservative, socially progressive, and quite corrupt. They are currently without a real leader.
2. The Conservatives , formerly the Progressive Conservatives, briefly the Reform Party, even more briefly the (conservative) Alliance. One of Canada's two original parties, the Progressive Conservatives were almost completely destroyed by their own leader's unpopularity in 1992. The new Conservative party is fically conservative, socially regressive, quite corrupt, and generally whacko. Their current leader is the head whacko.
3. The New Democratic Party . Canada's semi-socialist party, fiscally socialist, socially very progressive. At the height of their popularity in the 1980s, they became known as "the conscience of the Commons". Unfortunately, when their leader retired, they lost their direction and their credibility. Their current leader is a posturing buffoon. The NDP currently holds the balance of power in Ottawa. They've never held enough seats to become corrupt.
4. Le Bloc Quebecois . One of the parties that formed following the destruction of the Progressive Conservatives, the Bloc's sole mission is to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada. They have only fielded candidates in Quebec.
5. The fringe parties. The Communist Party, the Green Party, the Marijuana Party, the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party... we've got 'em all. Full list here.
6. The Rhinoceros Party . This party disbanded after its original leader died, but it is worth noting for being the most popular 'joke' party in Canada's history. Although they never held a seat, they received numerous votes from disgruntled voters for policies like the following:
   • putting the national debt on Visa
   • turning the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine tunnel in Montreal into a free carwash by poking holes in the ceiling
   • switching Canada to driving on the left side of the road to be more like England (and therefore less like the USA), but making the transition gradual: trucks and buses first.

In an election that was mainly a fight over The Religious Right (Corporatist) vs Corrupt Corporatists where you are lead to believe that it MUST be one or the other, few people realise that they CAN vote for a Non-corporatist party ( or another, or another)

As the CIA factbook used to point out up until very recently, Quebec nationalism was a significant risk factor.

Consider that the alternative to the Liberals is the Block Quebecois Smuf Blue separatist in collusion with the Western Redneck from the Conservatives party many of whom are eager to kick Quebec out to get back their english only CornFlakes boxes. Coupled with the fact that the Liberals, only federalist party in Quebec have already lost their upcoming elections, you will have, for the first time in Canadian history, a seperatist gouverment in Quebec with a federal gouverment incapable and not particularly interested in keeping Quebec.

Things will be a lot more volatile in Canada in the next 5 years.

You're absolutely right! I guess I'm pretty ignorant too :/

The problem is that I never hear about the Bloc Québécois cuz they don't have any seats other than in Quebec and most of their literature is in French which I can't read very well (although BabelFish can sorta translate, I can't really trust the translating).

I think right now the reason why the Liberals are in power is because they're the lesser evil compared to the rest, but that's my two cents.

Quite a few European countries have had problems with terrorosts for years. The UK with the IRA, the Spanish with the Basque (sp?) seperatists etc etc.
Hell Canada has one working in the government. Sure they don't blow up bombs but they ruin the security of Canada

US citizen trying to get the hang of all these darn parties while I wait for Immigration to let me the heck in.

Here's all you need to know:

Liberals (or "Grits") - The centrist ruling party.
Progressive Conservatives (or "Tories) - Traditional right-of-centre alternative to the Liberals, until a decade ago when its support splintered.
New Democratic Party - Traditional "third party", left-of-centre, have never formed a government.
Canadian Alliance - Formed in 1987 as the "Reform party", a Western party that split from the Tories. Currently involved in a fratricidal leadership controversy; likely to disintegrate before the next election.
Bloc Quebecois - A Quebec-based party that split largely from the Tories. They run candidates only in Quebec and campaign solely on Quebec independence.

Of course we also have the usual fringe parties - the Marijuana party, the Communist party, the Green party, and so on. My favourite is the Natural Law party, whose basic policy is to teach Canadians to levitate using Yoga.

Right.

Speaking of all the election hype, I feel compelled to throw in my $0.02 on the upcoming elections for us neighbors in Canada..
Since I'm generally (by choice) uninformed about American politics, I only take interest in the subject purely for entertainment value.
Equally entertaining is that of Canadian politics, which from my personal observation, us Canadians take more of a humouristic look..
The next Federal Election is Nov 27, 2000, and our candidates have given us a few more boxes on the ballot to check (or spoil) :)

So, for those Slashdotters interested, here's some nifty links I've come across for some more comic relief

Elections Canada
Some Logos
Parties
Liberal Party
PC Party
NDP
Canadian Alliance
Marijuana Party
Bloc Quebecois
Government of Canada