The Conservative Convention of 2011 is over and the overall consensus of the delegates at the convention coincides with the opinions of Blue Youth. The purpose of the convention was for Conservative delegates and spectators from all across Canada to meet and discuss many agenda items, including policy reform. While no major policy changes were introduced at the convention the future direction of the party leading up to the next election campaign in four years was established.
The focus of the party will be to solidify the base, securing another majority government and building the foundations for a larger majority in 2015. This decision is exactly what Blue Youth members want the Party to focus on. Until now, the Party has been forced to solely focus on policy and policy reform to attract enough voters to form a majority government. Now that the Conservatives have a majority government our primary focus is to maintain that majority and make it stronger. This can only be achieved effectively at the local riding level. All ridings will be encouraged by the Party to increase memberships with a focus on individuals that are younger.
This is where Blue Youth comes in and will be a vital player in increasing local Northumberland-Quinte West membership numbers with youth volunteers and members. As Blue Youth, we are excited to see that the Party is now focusing on the most fundamental part of the Conservative brand – its membership base and supporters.
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Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Improving Canadian Democracy
With the Throne Speech given and the Conservatives highlighting their priorities for the next 12 months, Blue Youth took particular attention to changing the number of seats in the House of Commons. We feel this is justified as Canada is a democracy meaning everyone should have the same voice in Canada, while still honoring certain conditions stated in the Canadian constitution.
A recent article by National Post columnist Lorne Gunter gave great insight into the disparity that is present in Canadian democracy.
The Conservatives propose to add 30 more seats to the House of Commons - 18 in Ontario, 7 in BC, and 5 in Alberta. The rationale? "Dividing the national population (about 34.5 million) by the number of seats in the Commons (308), yields an average of 112,000 residents per riding in Canada." If every province was to be treated equally "the value of a single vote would be 1.0".
However, on average, not all provinces are treated equal because of "constitutional floors" that ensure Quebec has 75 seats, regardless of population and the Atlantic provinces maintain the same amount of MPs as Senators. For example, in "Saskatchewan...each vote is worth 1.39. Ontario and Alberta - 0.91 and 0.92, respectively...[and] Prince Edward Island, where each vote is worth 2.88, is the most overrepresented."
By far you would think most Canadians believe in democracy so most would support such a move giving Ontario, Alberta, and BC more seats that they deserve. A recent poll conducted by CTV's Question Period found 69% of Canadians agreed with the Conservative government. This is very encouraging news that Canadians want to make parliament more fair.
Surprisingly, there is strong criticism against making parliament fairer. This criticism comes from the Official Opposition of the NDP and leader Jack Layton. Mr. Layton argues that Ontario, Alberta, and BC should get more seats but only if Quebec gets more seats. The amount of seats Quebec would gain would represent the same percentage as current in the House of Commons. He argues this is guaranteed to Quebec under the Canadian constitution. This is not true, Quebec is guaranteed 75 seats under the constitution but not guaranteed a certain percentage of all seats in the House of Commons.
With a Conservative majority in place it is without a doubt that this bill will pass but the Official Opposition should support the bill as well. If Jack Layton states he and his party support Canadian democracy then the New DEMOCRATIC Party should support this proposed change. We implore Jack Layton not to play partisan politics with his Quebec base but vote for the bill and stand up for Canadian democracy.
Parts of this post are sourced from Lorne Gunter's Making parliament fairer.
A recent article by National Post columnist Lorne Gunter gave great insight into the disparity that is present in Canadian democracy.
The Conservatives propose to add 30 more seats to the House of Commons - 18 in Ontario, 7 in BC, and 5 in Alberta. The rationale? "Dividing the national population (about 34.5 million) by the number of seats in the Commons (308), yields an average of 112,000 residents per riding in Canada." If every province was to be treated equally "the value of a single vote would be 1.0".
However, on average, not all provinces are treated equal because of "constitutional floors" that ensure Quebec has 75 seats, regardless of population and the Atlantic provinces maintain the same amount of MPs as Senators. For example, in "Saskatchewan...each vote is worth 1.39. Ontario and Alberta - 0.91 and 0.92, respectively...[and] Prince Edward Island, where each vote is worth 2.88, is the most overrepresented."
By far you would think most Canadians believe in democracy so most would support such a move giving Ontario, Alberta, and BC more seats that they deserve. A recent poll conducted by CTV's Question Period found 69% of Canadians agreed with the Conservative government. This is very encouraging news that Canadians want to make parliament more fair.
Surprisingly, there is strong criticism against making parliament fairer. This criticism comes from the Official Opposition of the NDP and leader Jack Layton. Mr. Layton argues that Ontario, Alberta, and BC should get more seats but only if Quebec gets more seats. The amount of seats Quebec would gain would represent the same percentage as current in the House of Commons. He argues this is guaranteed to Quebec under the Canadian constitution. This is not true, Quebec is guaranteed 75 seats under the constitution but not guaranteed a certain percentage of all seats in the House of Commons.
With a Conservative majority in place it is without a doubt that this bill will pass but the Official Opposition should support the bill as well. If Jack Layton states he and his party support Canadian democracy then the New DEMOCRATIC Party should support this proposed change. We implore Jack Layton not to play partisan politics with his Quebec base but vote for the bill and stand up for Canadian democracy.
Parts of this post are sourced from Lorne Gunter's Making parliament fairer.
Notice:
Please note that last week did not have a blog post due to technical issues with the Blue Youth website. Time was spent fixing the website issues, now resolved, instead of updating the blog. Blue Youth apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the technical issues. For an interesting article please view National Post Columnist Lorne Gunter's The real surge was Harper's.
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