News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 10K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 42K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 6K     0 

adma said:
... When one votes in advance, that doesn't count t/w one's polling station--though it may count t/w a larger advance polling subdivision that encompasses said polling station. To take a case: in the 2021 election, Parkdale-High Park had provision for 158 "regular" polling subdivisions, 35 "400-polls" (typically apartments/condos), and 16 advance polls + special balloting. Voting in advance goes into those 16 advance polls, which are like "megapolls" which don't offer the statistical granularity of the e-day polls...
Click to expand...
If I understand this, it sounds like your beef is with the way Elections Canada records data for people voting at advanced polls, not with the fact that we can and do use advanced voting. As I said back in another post, I'm reasonably certain the voter card I get in the mail and hand over to them when I vote could easily be used to record me as having voted at whatever polling station I was (or would have been) assigned to on election day.
 
picard102 said:
It's wild to me that we don't have any residency requirements for MP's.
Click to expand...
Aye. This is straight up "seat/riding shopping".

On the flip side, Carney might be allowing this to happen knowing that Pierre Poilievre will essentially be indebted to him. Perhaps a deal was struck?
 
Bojaxs said:
Aye. This is straight up "seat/riding shopping".

On the flip side, Carney might be allowing this to happen knowing that Pierre Poilievre will essentially be indebted to him. Perhaps a deal was struck?
Click to expand...

I don't know if PP is the type - when he haven't even called Fanjoy by this point.

AoD
 
SubHuman said:
If I understand this, it sounds like your beef is with the way Elections Canada records data for people voting at advanced polls, not with the fact that we can and do use advanced voting. As I said back in another post, I'm reasonably certain the voter card I get in the mail and hand over to them when I vote could easily be used to record me as having voted at whatever polling station I was (or would have been) assigned to on election day.
Click to expand...
It could; but they don't do it that way. They record by polling station, not by the, er, "postcode" of whomever does the voting (and with good reason; as your vote is confidential, so it runs the risk of giving your voting choice away)
 
picard102 said:
It's wild to me that we don't have any residency requirements for MP's.
Click to expand...

I very much support this idea.

But it doesn't seem to have ever had much traction.

We have a term for it, which most will recognize 'Carpetbagging' a term from the U.S. Civil War referring to people who temporarily relocate for short term opportunity.

To me its a matter of aligned interest. You should be in the same proverbial basket as those you seek to represent, as much as is practical. I would also love to see donations to local candidates restricted to those living within the riding in question.
 
Last edited:

Our blundering Elections Canada only looks good compared to the U.S. system​


'Any time an elector misses their opportunity to vote, it is something we take seriously', says Elections Canada. Not seriously enough!

From https://nationalpost.com/opinion/selley-elections-canada-blunders

Election days, both Canadian and especially American, are among the opportunities Canadians take to express publicly their belief in Canada’s general superiority to their southern neighbour.

None of America’s gerrymandered districts, malfunctioning technology, hanging chads, hours-long queues to vote or endless legal battles for us. Just a paper ballot and a golf pencil and hand counting, and a result within hours of the polls closing.

Alas, Elections Canada did not cover itself in glory on April 28.
Click to expand...

First, with polls still open in most of the country and many Canadians eagerly in search of information — information as basic as where to vote — Election Canada’s website crashed. Officials confirmed it wasn’t any kind of outside attack (good?), but rather an internal error (bad!). And when it implemented a “contingency website,” apparently designed for just such an eventuality, it lacked that most basic function: The ability to enter your postal code to find out where to vote.

Elections Canada’s website isn’t what you would call slick, and slickness absolutely should not be a goal. The pursuit of “better” government websites, to say nothing of apps, is one of the many places where public money goes to die in terror. When the website works, it works just fine. But if its antiquated front end bespeaks an antiquated back end, especially knowing what we know about foreign interference, parliamentarians need to get to the bottom of that.
Click to expand...

Also this week, Elections Canada had to issue an extraordinary (or so you would think) statement confirming that it “deeply regrets that some electors in Nunavik (in Quebec) were not able to cast their vote.”

Voting in the Far North involves fly-in polling stations. It’s complicated, important work to which no one south of 60 would ever give any thought — and Elections Canada never seems to give it enough thought, either. “Federal election voting closing @ 2:30 p.m. due to unforeseen circumstances,” a sign on the polling station in Salluit, Que., population 1,580, 62 degrees north latitude. Ho hum, no big deal.
Click to expand...

“In several cases, it was not possible to recruit local teams. In other cases, harsh weather conditions have prevented access to communities,” Elections Canada said in a statement Monday. It has a contingency website, but not a contingency for harsh weather or lack of local poll workers in Nunavik? Ludicrous. What happens in a winter election?

This happened last time around too, notably in the northwestern Ontario riding of Kenora. “There were no polling stations on election day in three fly-in First Nations, including Pikangikum, Poplar Hill and Cat Lake,” CBC reported in 2021. “(And) voter cards … had incorrect information about polling stations.”

“Any time an elector misses their opportunity to vote, it is something we take seriously — something we take personally — and we’re working to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” an Elections Canada spokesperson told the public broadcaster.

“Any time an elector misses their opportunity to vote”? This isn’t like Burger King giving you fries instead of onion rings. This is the most simple, comprehensive failure

Not that this should make it any more or less concerning, since every vote is worth the same under law, but Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou is no sure-thing riding for any party. Only 2,197 votes separated the Liberal winner Mandy Gull-Masty from Bloc incumbent Sylvie Bérubé. It’s not inconceivable this disenfranchisement could at some point make the difference between a Liberal or Conservative government.

Voting by mail would be one obvious solution. But Canadians should never be forced to vote before election day. As is often the case nowadays, advanced polling opened for last Monday’s election before any party had even released its platform. Mail-in ballots must be received by election day to count, and while I’ve never been to Ivujivik, Que., 62 degrees north latitude, population 412, I’m guessing the mail service to Ottawa isn’t the most reliable thing in the world.

Perhaps the most obvious solution is to allow mail-in ballots postmarked no later than election day. If we have to wait a little longer for ridings with fly-in communities and other logistical challenges to be decided conclusively, so be it. But while voting by internet isn’t something we need or should be pursuing in general, surely that’s also a reasonable workaround option for places like Nunavik.

It’s not like we’re talking about very many people: just 89,087 in Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, 61,962 in Kenora, 36,858 in Nunavut, 26,655 in Labrador. My Toronto riding has 121,703 people, incidentally. The population-per-riding across this vast democracy ranges from 36,858 in Nunavut to 38,583 in Prince Edward Island to 116,589 in Ontario. That’s not Elections Canada’s fault; that’s the not-very-compelling system they were given to administer. But it’s another great reason not to be too smug about our elections.
Click to expand...
 
Northern Light said:
I very much support this idea.

But it doesn't seem to have ever had much traction.

We have a term for it, which most will recognize 'Carpetbagging' a term from the U.S. Civil War referring to people who temporarily relocate for short term opportunity.

To me its a matter of aligned interest. You should be in the same proverbial basket as those you seek to represent, as much as is practical. I would also love to donations to local candidates restricted to those living within the riding in question.
Click to expand...

There should be a 4 year residency requirement - roughly the length of a stable government.

AoD
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top