Almost-All-Candidates Meeting

So today I went to see [the all-candidates debate at the Laurier Faculty of Social Work](http://www.wlu.ca/news_detail.php?grp_id=30&nws_id=4479). They invited all the candidates from both the Kitchener-Waterloo and Kitchener Centre ridings to attend. Candidates from every major party showed up, except, notably, the Conservatives. Both of them ditched us.

Hm. I wonder what that says.

I’m going to the debate at UW on Thursday. I’ll be interested to see if Peter Braid bothers to make it to that one.

With the political spectrum spanning the centre to the left, the debate was refreshingly (perhaps even boringly) cordial. I didn’t take notes or anything, and I’ll probably save my overall impressions till after Thursday’s debate.

Some notes:

* Andrew Telegdi mentioned Paul Martin favourably a number of times, and associated himself with Elizabeth May twice. I don’t remember him mentioning Stéphane Dion once. I find this… odd. He did point out that his party was very forgiving, however. So maybe they don’t mind.
* Cathy MacLelland (who I actually really like) seemed a little bit miffed that Telegdi was trying to abscond with her party leader.
* Telegdi came out advocating [preferential voting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_voting) when the topic came around to electoral reform, like Stéphane Dion did on cross-country check-up yesterday. The NDP guy from Kitchener Centre countered with mixed-member proportional, possibly because he’s forgotten about the Ontario referendum last year. Still, I like where this is going.

2 thoughts on “Almost-All-Candidates Meeting”

  1. The mixed-member proportional model for the Ontario referendum had closed province-wide lists. The Citizens’ Assembly Chair stated this spring that, if they had had more time to deliberate, they would likely have reconsidered this point.

    A model with open regional lists, as used in Bavaria, lets voters cast one vote for their local MP, and a second for their party and a candidate for regional MP. So the regional MPs not only compensate for disproportional local results, but were also chosen by the voters to represent those voters whose votes would otherwise have elected no one.

    Quebec is still debating electoral reform, including the current report from their Chief Elections Officer recommending just such a regional model. So stay tuned.

  2. I have nothing against MMP: I voted for it. Given it’s reception by Ontario voters, I don’t think it has legs as a reform idea, even if the actual proposition wasn’t technically ideal. That’s all I’m saying.

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