FPTP vs MMP

[CLIFFORD ILKAY]

Scott Elcomb wrote:
> On 10/7/07, Jon Thiele <jthiele-bux5bdj6uGJBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> The counter arguments can be seen here:
>>>
>>>   http://nommp.ca/
>> From the website:
>>
>> "Tax dollars paying for 22 more politicians and their staff at Queen's Park"
>>
>> Well, that does it for me.  I know exactly(!) how I'm going to vote...
> 
> Not sure I understand your statement.  For example:
> 
>   * Should we throw our tax dollars towards advertising scandals, as
> evidenced by the Federal Liberals?

Or grants by the McGuinty government to various groups with Liberal ties?

>   * Put those dollars towards funding all faith-based school systems?

Actually, no. I would rather that all schools get funded using a voucher 
system, regardless of whether they are "faith-based" (I guess parochial 
was too big a word) or not. Star columnist Haroon Siddiqi has an 
interesting analysis of the backlash against funding of parochial 
schools here: <http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/264177>. I 
cannot say that I disagree with him judging by the comments I've read 
on-line.

I used to be very much opposed to funding of any parochial schools, 
including the Catholic system, a few years ago but have since changed my 
mind. It seems to me that the most ardent opponents of funding of 
parochial schools profess a faith, though they don't call it as such, of 
secular humanism. Quite often, these same people are the ones who argue 
that Christmas should be called "Winter Festival", or some such 
ridiculous euphemism, and Christmas trees should be removed from public 
buildings. More often than not, the people who promote these views are 
not Jews, Hindus, or Muslims but rather people who a generation ago 
would have been called "Christians" and now consider themselves to be 
agnostics or atheists. They pursue the promotion of their beliefs with 
as much zeal as any "fundamentalist" of any other religion. Therefore, 
funding only the public system funds only one particular religion, that 
of secular humanists, which is just as unjust as the status quo. Of 
course not all parents who send their children to public schools fall 
into the category of secular humanists but that is no different than 
non-Catholics who send their children to Catholic schools.

I found the arguments put forth by all political parties wanting on this 
issue but in particular, I found the position of the Liberals most 
indefensible. McGuinty's use of such divisive language as "segregation" 
with respect to funding parochial schools was just reprehensible and 
offensive. His claim that stopping funding of Catholic schools was not 
possible due to constitutional obligations was just political cowardice. 
If he were truly concerned about "inclusiveness" and against 
"segregation", he would pledge to stop funding Catholic schools but of 
course that would be politically suicidal. There is also the minor 
detail that he and his Education Minister, Kathleen Wynne, who 
represents my riding, both supported extending funding to all parochial 
schools in the name of fairness before they were elected. They attack 
the very same position that they themselves had promoted. Did they 
change their minds? If so, I can respect that as long as they put forth 
credible arguments but they pretend that they never supported that 
position. That is just hypocritical.

>   * Any of a bazilliion other programs promised by politicians at
> election-time and never implemented?
> 
> How would you like to see your tax dollars used?
> 
> Personally, I'd rather pay for the extra politicians - just to hear
> _their views_.

I don't understand how hearing "the views" of more politicians is going 
to make this any more a representative democracy. How are more MPPs 
going to ensure we don't have scandals and corruption? Why not have 
twice as many politicians then? That should be twice as representative.
-- 
Regards,

Clifford
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists