ProjectDemocracy.ca launched yesterday and it is ready to play. Disclosure: It is totally separate from NOW but I am a projectdemocracy.ca co-founder and therefore a proud Momma. Now, we can all be election geeks together.
You can click on any riding in the country and find out how the race is shaping up there. The drop down menu let's you dial in the info you want to see. You can get previous election results or every one of the latest poll results and how they slice and dice locally, provincially and nationally.
It is election by numbers and it's fun or depressing, depending...
ProjectDemocracy.ca is here because right now, the numbers are stacked against us.
Canadian federal and Toronto city governance are being twisted and torqued by radicals bent on rewriting all the rules. And that un-party of fun, social conservatism is all the social you can expect from the folks who like this crowd. It is scary.
Same old really isn't working. We need to make a change if we want to see a change.
ProjectDemocracy.ca sheds light on how we citizens can participate meaningfully in this electoral mess. The numbers talk. They actually show there is a way to get out from under that thumb of the united right.
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And here is what is really new. ProjectDemocracy.ca takes the spin out of co-operative voting. It lets the numbers do the talking. All we have to do is listen.
Passionate partisans, please note. Co-operative voting is not about giving up our support for the party of our choice. The result of targeted, informed voter co-operation is more, more, more. The Projectdemocracy.ca predictive model shows there are 30 new, currently Conservative ridings within easy reach and many more if we build serious support.
Of the top 30 ridings we could win, 20 would go to the Liberals, 6 to the NDP, three to the Bloc and one to the Greens. That's a post-partisan bonanza, that works for all of us.
Practical and powerful, ProjectDemocracy.ca helps make voting worthwhile.
This article was first published in NOW Magazine.
Canada's undemocratic electoral system
Our first past the post electoral system results in the majority of Canadians ruled by the minority, which is far different than most democracies that have a proportional representation electoral system. The only mechanism available to stop Harper is for those living in ridings where the Reform conservatives were elected with less than fifty percent of the vote in the last election, to vote for the progressive candidate that has the best chance of winning.
Thankfully, these websites were set up to help voters vote strategically. If Harper wins again, Canada is set to head down the Tea Party road that benefits the wealthy, builds more prison for the disadvantaged and the protesters, despoils the environment and cuts services. All it would take is, in the key ridings, for some NDPers to hold their noses and vote Liberal, while in other ridings, some Liberals would need to vote NDP. If just in this one, crucial election, progressives could put aside their partisan views and vote instead to ditch Harper, we could end up with a Canadian government that represents the majority, rather than the minority.
It nice to dream anyway. Thank You Alice and your team for helping Canadians vote strategically.