Canada voted, but your vote may not count… again

How likely do you think it will be that the Liberals bring in electoral reform in this term? Your first two guesses don’t count. So, one more federal election, one more failure to get the results we voted for, one more missed opportunity to change our archaic and unfair electoral system. You may remember the […]

The candidates’ debate, take two

There must be a better way, and not just to conduct candidates’ debates. How would you change how elections are conducted? Last week’s skeptical — some might call it cynical — column about the provincial election leaders’ debate prompted a number of more thoughtful-than-I-deserved responses. Richard Starr, for example, agreed with my point there were […]

The perils of being progressive

Thanks to our first past the post system — thanks, Justin — progressives in Halifax still face a Hobson’s choice when it comes to the federal election. I get it. I even sympathize. You have only one vote and you don’t want to waste it. But how to choose? That is the question without easy […]

Havana, Halifax and the state of democracy

(This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on May 1, 2017 .) I confess. I spent a quiet weekend while my Nova Scotia journalist colleagues no doubt filled theirs to the almost end with feverish when-will-he/will-he pull the plug media speculation about the date of our next provincial election. That’s because I spent my […]

Stephen McNeil thinks we need electoral reform; just don’t ask him to do anything about it…

There is something rich — and richly ironic — hearing Stephen McNeil fret about the number of voters who didn’t bother to cast ballots in last week’s three provincial by-elections. McNeil, after all, chose the date. He could have called the by-elections for late spring when voters might conceivably have been more engaged. Instead, he picked […]