Naomi Klein on the World Bank

It's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy. That's the line on Paul Wolfowitz coming from editorial pages around the world. It's neither: not the act (the way he disregarded the rules to get his girlfriend a pay rise); and not the hypocrisy (the fact that Wolfowitz's mission as World Bank president is fighting for "good governance").

full story at the Guardian.http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2066703,00.html

Provincial Campaign Update

July 18, 2007.



The campaign is off to a great start. We are involved in the uranium
exploration in North Frontenac, and Arif has made good contacts with the
CAW local at Hershey's and opened up some exciting prospect for
producing fair trade chocolates and workers ownership of the factory.
We will keep you posted on developments. The link between uranium
mining and nuclear power has been well received. I have been impressed
at the strength of opposition to nuclear power. Jack Layton's Press
secretary came to the Algonquin blockade of the mine exploration site
and offered the parties support.



HELP NEEDED

We need volunteers to help in three main areas over the summer:



* Write and produce literature. We have a volunteer who is going
to do layout, but proof reading and input are needed;
* Going to fairs, either with the candidate, or to sit at a table
with NDP literature and talk to anyone interested; and,
* Helping with phoning members and contacts.



If you can help with any of these, or would like to help out in any
other way, drop a note or call 613-374-5211.





UPCOMING EVENTS



First all-candidates meeting - Saturday, July 21, 10am, Bedford
Community Hall, 1381 Westport Road, organized by the Bedford Mining
Alert.



Tamworth Festival, July 21 in Tamworth, Ross will be there in the
afternoon



Stewart Park Festival in Perth - Ross hopes to be there for a couple of
hours on July 22



Lanark landowners Farmers market, July 29, Beckwith Sportsplex. Ross to
be there for a couple of hours around noon.



Saturday August 4 - Carleton Place Fair. We have a table. Ross and
Arif to be there and we need help staffing the table. If you can sit
there for a couple of hours please drop a note.

Sunday August 19- 4-8, meet the candidate, barbeque and campaign
discussion - John and Mary Platt's house - 3756 Copper Kettle Drive,
Inverary.

Sunday August 26, 4-8, meet the candidate and campaign discussion in
Carleton Place. Location to be announced.


IF YOU CAN MAKE ITO ANY OF THESE EVENTS, DROP BY AND SAY HI. IT WOULD
BE GREAT TO SEE YOU. ROSS.

Ross Sutherland - elbe@web.net

Article by Randy Hillier and Reply from Fair Vote's Steve Withers on MMP Electoral Reform

Randy Hillier authored a letter which appeared in the Napanee Beaver, in opposition to the proposed electoral reform.

Steve Withers replies from the Yes side below. Published here from e-mail liststerv with Steve's permission

Politicians who don't do their homework are the problem - Steve Withers

Reading Conservative Party candidate, Randy Hillier's letter, it seems to me he is attempting to peddle vague, voluntary "democratic reform" instead of understanding and endorsing the compulsory improvements the Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) system certainly will impose on our MPPs if adopted on October 10th. Mr Hillier's voluntary, "let's all play nice", substitute for real change has been tried before in Canada and proven to be hollow promises every time. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

At risk of seeming harsh, having read Mr. Hillier's claims about MMP, he clearly hasn't done his homework. I say this because I've spent the last 11 years living under a very similar MMP system used in New Zealand. I'm from Ontario, but have spent many years there. In fact, I like MMP so much as a citizen and voter, I've returned to Ontario to share the good news with my fellow Ontarians. I would hate see people not support MMP, a very worthwhile improvement to Ontario's democracy, having been mislead by the flatly wrong assertions made by people like Mr. Hillier.

So how does MMP really work in actual practice? Nothing like what Mr. Hillier says. Let me tell you about where I live.

I live in the Otaki riding on the west coast of the North Island, New Zealand. Otaki is a mainly rural riding. The locally elected MP is Labour's Darren Hughes.

Not far away, in another riding office is Nathan Guy. He is a list MP for the Opposition National Party. Mr. Guy came second to Mr Hughes in the local race, but was high enough on the party list that he was also elected by his party's vote nationally. Far from being a "loser", Mr. Guy is a popular local Councilor and is a very popular MP, despite not getting quite as many votes as Mr. Hughes locally.

But wait, there's more. Sue Kedgley, a list MP from the Green Party, also serves the Otaki electorate as well as the other 9 ridings of the Wellington region. Her ads are in the weekly give-aways inviting Otaki voters to talk to her on issues of concern.

All of these MPs were democratically chosen as candidates (list or local) by the votes of party members prior to being elected by voters generally. None are party hacks chosen by party bosses in back rooms. That isn't how MMP really works. Voters and party members wouldn't stand for it if they tried. Mr. Hillier would know this had he bothered to check it out. He clearly didn't. So what is Mr. Hillier trying to tell us? Will his Conservative party choose its list candidates in back rooms and without consulting party members? Is he saying his party will be corrupt and undemocratic? I hope not. They won't get many votes under MMP behaving that way!

Under MMP, each of us will get two votes. A local vote to keep our local MPP in line and a party vote to keep the party we support in line. We don't have to mix the two functions in in one vote, as we do now. Even better, the party vote decides how many seats each party gets overall AND it counts toward representation no matter who won our local seat or where we cast it. Under MMP, because very party vote counts, the whole concept of appealing to swing voters in marginal seats becomes obsolete. Every voter is a swing voter.

If Mr. Hillier's party insisted, despite good advice to the contrary, on offering us corrupt old party hacks chosen in back rooms, as he claims we will certainly see, then the good news is that under MMP, we don't have to vote for any of them. We will have several other viable choices. Mr. Hillier would, in effect, have us believe that voting for just one candidate in just one riding out of 103 is as good as democracy can get. Never mind that the other 102 MPPs are utterly unaccountable to each of us. Never mind that our favoured candidate very likely didn't win and we elected no one anyway with our one vote.

Whereas under MMP, my party vote will apply to the entire province for the party I cast it for. Not just one riding. The whole province. My party vote helps decide the total number of seats my party will get. Not just one.

Mr. Hillier talks about paralysis under MMP. He clearly hasn't done any homework at all. More than 80 countries use proportional voting systems and they get along just fine. In New Zealand there is no paralysis. The economy is booming. Unemployment is the lowest in 35 years. The annual operating surplus of the NZ government during the past 5 years has been at times over NZ$11 billion on a NZ$35 billion annual budget. These surpluses are going to be used to fund the state-funded pension needs of baby boomers. That sounds like good management and growing prosperity, to me, not paralysis.

I could go on, but I think I've already demonstrated very clearly that Mr. Hillier needs to go back and do some homework before he risks further damaging his credibility by saying things publicly that are flatly wrong.

-- Steve WithersVote for MMP on Oct 10thhttp://www.VoteForMMP.caPh: +1-416-644-1034 (option3)Mo: +1-519-282-1078mhtml:%7B0CBA0CBD-644A-4808-9DAD-FCA138344C39%7Dmid://00000095/!x-usc:mailto:steve.withers@fairvote.camhtml:%7B0CBA0CBD-644A-4808-9DAD-FCA138344C39%7Dmid://00000095/!x-usc:mailto:sbwithers@gmail.com

Fair Vote Campaign Launched - Ontario Referendum Oct. 10th

Have you ever been frustrated at election time because your vote will count for nothing? Do you feel that the representation in government should more accurately reflect the wishes of Canadian voters? On Oct. 10th, you will have the opportunity to cast a vote in a referendum on electoral reform in Ontario. If Ontarians vote Yes, we’ll be the first jurisdiction in Canada to adopt a Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) system proposed by the Ontario Citizens Assembly. In future elections you’ll be able to cast two votes, one for a riding candidate and one for a party. A third of the seats will be filled according to the proportion of votes for a party and each party will post their list of candidates for proportional seats. You’ll still have MPP’s accountable to constituents and you will be assured of a vote that matters. This is an exciting and refreshing time for democracy in Ontario.

Here are some good reasons to change the electoral system so that it represents your vote. Currently, the Liberals hold roughly 70% of the seats at Queen’s Park with just 46% of the vote. Conservatives have only 24 of the 103 seats with 34% of the vote. If you’re an NDP voter, you’ll be frustrated to find that your party holds half the amount of seats the proportion of the vote suggests they should have. If you’re a Green party supporter, you’ll worry that though your party is polling at 10% in Ontario and still may not win a seat. On the federal front, Liberal voters in Alberta must wonder what happened to their votes, with Conservatives taking every single seat.

Our first-past-the post system undeniably favours the winning party. Not surprisingly, parties holding power have been reluctant to change to a system that would make voting more fair. This may be short-sighted. At one time or another, in federal or provincial politics, everyone has felt the pain of lopsided representation and the arrogance of a government that doesn’t quite deserve the power they hold. Women, First Nations, disabled and minority candidates are under-represented in government compared to the composition of our province, and MMP improves this picture. Mixed Member Proportional representation systems are successful in many modern democracies around the world such as the Scottish Parliament in the UK, New Zealand and Germany. If Ontario succeeds, this could be the model for better democracy in Canada.

The campaign for electoral reform is a multi-partisan initiative supported by the likes of Lloyd Axworthy, respected former Liberal foreign affairs minister, Hugh Segal, public policy guru and former Chief of Staff for Brian Mulroney and ethical Ed Broadbent of the NDP! Here in the provincial riding of Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington, we’re inviting all citizens to join a multi-partisan campaign to vote Yes in the October referendum on electoral reform. If you want to join the Yes campaign, let us know!

Arif Jinha
Carleton Place

Contacts
Arif Jinha Fair Vote Yes Campaign co-captain North LFL&A
donna.arif@rogers.com 613-889-7506
Hugh Jenney Fair Vote co-captain South LFL&A
hcjenney@hotmail.com 613-384-7830.