• Rocket@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    We really need to discuss the reality of the Canadian political situation.

    Well, no. The context of discussion centres around an earlier commenter’s claim that “We need a system that truly reflects the will on the majority of Canadians.” That cannot discuss the reality of the Canadian political situation as it is fundamentally forward looking to a reality which does not yet exist. FPTP, used as it was designed, is very well suited to achieving what is stated.

    But it does mean that the people have to express their will, and they have proven that they don’t want to. They prefer to spend time focusing on their job, their family, friends, writing internet comments, etc. And fair enough. They want to hand control to a higher power and get back to their individual lives. FPTP is not at all suited to that.

    • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      FPTP, used as it was designed, is very well suited to achieving what is stated.

      No, it isn’t, as I said above. The Harper government was elected three times with less than 40% of the popular vote and did all the things that Conservatives do, ran up the deficit, ran up the debt, cut taxes for the rich and corporations, cut services for everyone else, burned decades of scientific research and muzzled government experts to push his christofascist dogmatic agenda, passed unconstitutional laws as a dog whistle to his christofascist base then spent millions of dollars defending them to the Supreme Court only to have 100% of those unconstutitional laws struck down. How is that representing the majority of Canadians when then had the support of less than 40%?

      The current Liberal + NDP agreement government far better represents the will of the people but it’s a quirk of the FPTP system.

      • Rocket@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        The Harper government

        Yeah, no. The fact that you can actually name the dictator tells that this is not FPTP as it was designed. That is how it has come to be used, because people don’t want to express their will, but that has already been talked about to death.

        Again, the FPTP system was designed to have the people select one representative who gathers locally to talk about their concerns and objectives with the local people. The representative then takes the result of that to Ottawa to combine with all of the other localities that have done the same to reach an ultimate consensus. The representative’s actions in Ottawa are recorded to make sure he has honoured what took place locally.

        That is not how we use it. It has been bastardized to the point that it makes no sense. But we could if wanted to have the will of the majority represented. There is nothing stopping us other than doing the democratic work a democracy expects. The only possibly better way to have the will represented is to have us all travel to Ottawa and all gather together. That doesn’t scale so well, though, and it’s a long way from Vancouver.

        The current Liberal + NDP agreement government far better represents the will of the people but it’s a quirk of the FPTP system.

        To be fair, it’s also quirky that you have been able to determine the will of the people as they don’t usually want to express their will. Typically they’d rather let someone else figure it out. Hence how we got here.

        • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          The fact that you can actually name the dictator tells that this is not FPTP as it was designed.

          You see? This is the kind of nonsense that is disconnected from reality. Harper was freely and fairly elected and was defeated in a free and fair election. He was nothing approaching a dictator.

          I’m simply not willing to continue to discuss this with you if you’re not making arguments that are connected to reality.

          Have a good day.

          • Rocket@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Harper was freely and fairly elected and was defeated in a free and fair election.

            The only time Harper was not elected in a Canadian federal election was the first one he participated in. He resigned from politics about six months after his last election win. Maybe you are trying to imply that the resignation was a defeat? But that did not happen during the election.

            Are you, maybe, talking about an election other than the Canadian federal election?

            He was nothing approaching a dictator.

            It sure seemed like you were trying to say that he had total control over the country at one time. I do not disagree. If that is not the case, why did you bring him up?

              • Rocket@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                Funny, as I stopped having a position a while ago. I long moved to trying to figure out your position as it is in no way clear.

                Some pretty simple questions in that last comment that would help clarify things. Is there a reason you are afraid to answer them?

                • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  Your positions are so absurd that there is no chance to have a reasonable conversation.

                  • Rocket@lemmy.ca
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                    1 year ago

                    What kind of conversation would we have had if, hypothetically, they were not absurd?

                    • Rocket - “[…]”
                    • MapleEngineer - “Yup, that’s how it is.”
                    • Rocket - “Yup, sure is.”
                    • MapleEngineer - “Yup. Guess that’s all there is to say about that.”
                    • Rocket - “Yup.”

                    Reasonable conversation is predicated on starting with the absurd. I give you the benefit of the doubt that you are trying, in good faith, to provide information to take us from the absurd to something sensible, but I am honestly not clear in what you are trying to say. My attempts to figure it out have been stonewalled.