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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (2497)	4/18/2003 10:12:53 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37182

I probably shouldn't take this up in the midst of a holiday, and I haven't gone back to look at my notes from way back when, so do cut me your usual slack. If memory serves, in the case of initiative, citizens word it themselves and, with sufficient signatures, have it placed word for word on the ballot. Again IIRC, in some jurisdictions, the legislature has the option of re-wording, but something with the same intent has to be put before the people. The safeguard is that you have a pretty high hurdle to overcome. Depending upon the jurisdiction, it's often a percentage of the eligible voters. And the percentage is high enough that you effectively lock out a Zundel. The classic example is Proposition 13 in California in the 70s(?). IIRC they had to get something like 10% of the registrered voters, and they not only did that but they won - they required a roll-back of property taxes, and forced the govt. of the day to decide whether to raise some other taxes or to cut spending. I don't accurately recall the question of timeing, but I think that initiatives / referenda have to tie in to some other ballot process. Not that big a deal when municipal elections are every two years. As I recall the fufahhh in 2000, people were saying that any wacko could get some hateful thing on the agenda at the drop of a hat. Well, you're usually given something like 30 or 45 days to get the required number of electors signatures. If it's 5% in a riding with 150,000 electors, it's probably pretty safe. Maybe 20 years ago I could have given a scholarly discourse on prop rep. I'll revert to a purely local take. There's probably 20% of people in Alberta who consistently vote Liberal. So prop rep would give the Libs a couple of seats in Alberta for sure. But prop rep guys get their seats because they're on the party list. And guys (and or course gals) get on the party list because they're loyalists. It's like people like Dan Hays and Nick Taylor -- yah, they're Liberals, but they're completely out of step with the population at large. How would Quebec feel about one Alliance seat? First past the post sucks in lots of ways, but for the life of me, I don't understand what planet Nick Taylor came from. Libs listen to Libs. Nick is a Lib, talks like one, walks like one. He no more represent what I think than does Don Boudria. Whereas he could run, and win, in Boudria's Ontario riding, 'cause he's a fellow traveller.