Lawn sign survey
Last night I did an informal survery by driving around my riding of London North Centre. As some of you may know, our federal MP stepped down and there's a by-election. Our PM recruited Diane Haskett, former mayor of London, who's been working for the Republicans in D.C. for the past 5 years, and who has a virulent and thinly disguised dislike of gays and non-christians. Basically a Katherine Harris or Rick Santorum type.
What sruprised me is that I saw over 30 lawn signs for the Elizabeth May of the Green Party, about 6 for the Liberals, 6 for the NDP and only one for Haskett. At the all-candidates debate last night, Haskett was booed at one point, had difficulty answering questions, and generally didn't seem to make a good impression on the audience. May got the best response out of the crowd, and of the four main runners seems to be the most impressive.
I was thinking of voting Liberal as the best chance to defeat Haskett, but I may vote Green this time if there's a chance they could win. My concern of course, is that the vote may split 3 ways against Haskett, and she'll win.
We really need to start a runoff vote system here. In a 4-party system, possibly soon to be 5-party one, it's absurd that we can so consistently have MP's winning on less that 50% of the popular vote.
What sruprised me is that I saw over 30 lawn signs for the Elizabeth May of the Green Party, about 6 for the Liberals, 6 for the NDP and only one for Haskett. At the all-candidates debate last night, Haskett was booed at one point, had difficulty answering questions, and generally didn't seem to make a good impression on the audience. May got the best response out of the crowd, and of the four main runners seems to be the most impressive.
I was thinking of voting Liberal as the best chance to defeat Haskett, but I may vote Green this time if there's a chance they could win. My concern of course, is that the vote may split 3 ways against Haskett, and she'll win.
We really need to start a runoff vote system here. In a 4-party system, possibly soon to be 5-party one, it's absurd that we can so consistently have MP's winning on less that 50% of the popular vote.