Comments on: What’s Wrong With Canadian Politics and a Warm Welcome to my First Blog Post!

By: Ryan Painter

Ryan Painter — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:18:33 +0000

I want to echo something that David pointed out, that being the positive side of politics. When and if you watch the House of Commons you rarely see moments of clarity or moments free of retorical spin. This is because the House of Commons is very politicised. I’d like to point out, however, that committees do tend to bare witness to more progress in terms of discussion and discourse then most House of Commons sittings. If people took some time and watched a Parliamentary Committee they might see just how their politicians work for them. However, if people focus only on the small world of soundbites and video clips, then they will continue to be unaware of the goods works that take place. I think people need to take the responsibility upon themselves to understand WHAT politics is and then discover their way through it.

By: David Tulloch

David Tulloch — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:27:33 +0000

I would also like to welcome Jason to informed vote and congratulate him on his article. I agree many voters are not well informed. I think one of the reasons is that today people have busier and more stressful lives, and therefore do not have alot of free time to study the issues. More importantly, I think people are more cynical about politicians today, and they don’t find politics interesting. I have tries to correct this is a small way by focusing more on the positive and interesting aspects of politics, with limited success. How do we get our fellow citizens involved? If more bloggers posted more positive articles there may be some small progress, but this alone would not be enough. Chretien tried unsuccessfully to create a museum centred on politics; if it centred on all aspects of public service, not just politicians, the project might succeed. More TV shows, movies, and stories about politics like “The West Wing” would help. We also have make politics more attractive to candidates (not just in a monetary sense) so that stronger candidates will run.

By: Gary Parker

Gary Parker — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:54:34 +0000

I too am a new blogger on this site Jason. My motive for joining the contributors to Informedvote was naturally to submit my own thoughts. But, since signing on I’ve actually spent most of my time reading rather than writing. I’ve been impressed by the quality and the content provided by a wide range of authors and I’ve fallen into the habit of cross referencing articles I read in my daily newspaper with corresponding articles on this site. To be sure, you made valid points in your first article but I think you would agree that you are preaching to the converted here. Now; how do we get our fellow citizens involved?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:59:14 +0000

Well written article and also, welcome to informed vote. I agree in part with your assertion that it is the voters responsibility to engage themselves in the system but I also believe that our politics in Canada doesn’t lend itself to much interest beyond the political afficianado. I feel that there are multiple reasons for voter apathy, one of which I think is definatly a lack of interest in being informed. I think this comes from an age where those between the ages of 18-30 want their information to be given to them in the easiest format possible. If the information take effort to find or has to be deseminated from numberous facts and figures where logic is required, it seems that most Canadians aren’t interested. Many say that perhaps electoral reform will change this. I’m not so sure. When New Zealand finally changed their electoral system to be more representative, it didn’t actually increase the percentage of voters over previous elections. So should we do what they do in Australia and make voting a legal obligation? I dont know if that’s the right answer either. I do know one thing; once the number of voters dips below 50%, our democracy is no longer legitimate, as our government is being decided in an election where less then half of the voting population took an interest.