Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleInTheDark
Second, it is not just your 1.95 it is OUR 1.95. Your vote is not tracked by to YOUR taxes so that the 1.95 comes from YOUR tax dollars. That would be great if your money was used to support your party. It's not. Quite simply all government spending is a division of each dollar we each pay for tax. Military, health, foreign affairs, etc. are all paid for by diving our dollars to support those measures.
If you want to support your party, I am sure every voter can spare the 1.95 from their own pocket. You can find that change lying around your home. But your voluntary contribution would not be coercing other people who do not believe as you do to support causes they don't agree with.
The political subsidy means that YOU support the Bloc, NDP, Conservatives, Liberals and Greens simultaneously. Clearly no one supports ALL parties. You cannot be for federalism and seperatism simultaneously. You cannot be for the free market and against it simultaneous. But that is what this political subsidy amounts to.
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Actually it is *my* $1.95.
The $1.95 is tied directly to the number of votes earned. If I don't vote, there is one less $1.95 in the pot. If I do vote there is one more $1.95 in the pot and it goes to the party I voted for.
I don't see this as anything close to theft. I see it as a way to get rid of special interests having undue influence on our political parties by way of massive donations.
As for Harper getting his request to prorogue granted, I think this is ultimately a very undemocratic move. He is thumbing his nose at the will of the house.
I noticed that he came out of his meeting with the GG offering, for the first time since all of this started, a small olive branch. He suggested that he would let the other parties have some say in the upcoming budget. This really is the only way to get out of this. He has to compromise.
Harper is the head of a minority government. Minority governments cannot act like a majority and expect to get away with it.
I am hoping that at some point we see a coalition government of some sort. I still think that coalitions are Canada's future. I agree with Ignatief's comment that it is the biggest threat we now have to keep a minority government in check. I would take it a step further and suggest that it is the greatest tool we have for representing true democracy in our parliamentary system (a system that does not look like it will have any majority governments in the near future).