Campaign Trail

Many votes, little clout

By: The Mississauga News

October 7, 2008 - When they go to the polls next week, voters in Mississauga and Peel will be casting ballots that will have much less impact than those in some other parts of Canada.
That's because ridings in this fast-growing area have some of the highest populations anywhere across the country, so a ballot here does not have the same power as one cast in ridings such as Labrador and Saskatchewan, where ridings are much larger physically but much less densely populated.
An article published today (Oct. 6) at digitalhome.ca includes a formula that calculates the value of every Canadian vote using a formula which takes the average riding size in Canada (102,639 people) and divides it by its actual population.
The riding with the least voting power in Canada under that formula is Brampton West, which has the largest population of 170,422. That gives it a voting power of .6 (102,639 divided by 170,422).
"Compare this to the riding of Labrador with a population of 26,364 which has a voting power of 3.9 (102,639 divided by 26,634)," says the site. "In other words, a vote in the riding of Labrador has more than six times the power of a vote in Brampton West."
Five of Mississauga's six ridings are among the 30 which have the weakest voting power, using the formula which is based on population numbers from the most recent national census.
Bramalea-Gore-Malton has the fourth-weakest voting power, while Mississauga-Erindale was sixth-lowest, and Mississauga-Brampton South was eighth-lowest. Only Mississauga South did not make the "bottom" 30.
The list of the most powerful 30 ridings in Canada includes all four ridings in PEI and 11 of the 14 Saskatchewan ridings.
The Digital Homes website states that it believes that "most Canadians would be shocked and angry to hear that some ridings in Canada have less than 30,000 people in them while others have over 170,000."

Voter apathy targeted in program

By Chris Clay

October 7, 2008 - Youth are notoriously apathetic when it comes to elections.
Not all, mind you. But many complain that politicians don't speak to issues that matter to them and you often hear there's a large disconnect between elected officials and youth.
Mississauga producers Alan So and Vince Kesavamoorthy hope to get many youth engaged in the Oct. 14 federal election and dispel a few myths about them in the process through a new, half-hour television special the pair produced for ichannel.
The program, The What Is: Election '08, will air on Saturday, Oct. 11 and Sunday, Oct. 12 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
"With regards to the youth and the election, politicians don't talk about the issues that affect us," So told The News. "During this election, the only context that has been given to the youth is how we are apathetic towards the whole electoral process. With the apathy issue, the media paints us as lazy and unable to get out and vote. It's not like Generation Y needs voting stations situated outside dorm rooms or made available online. The real problem with young voter apathy is the lack of approach that politicians take to get us interested in their platforms. The overall goal of the show is to clarify this issue of apathy and get some discussion on how to remedy this."
The program will include a satirical sketch, a man-on-the-street segment and a roundtable panel discussion. It's written and hosted by comedian and filmmaker Dan Speerin, who adds his satirical perspective on issues that matter to Generation Y.
Marc Chalifoux, executive director of the Dominion Institute, will appear on the panel discussion as will Mississauga-Brampton South MP Navdeep Bains. The local MP also serves as the Youth Caucus Liaison for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis, a Conservative, will also join the program.
The decision to film the show comes on the heels of an online survey conducted last month by the Dominion Institute that found 30 per cent of voters aged 18-25 said they weren't informed enough to cast a vote while another 11 per cent said they don't care enough to vote.
For more information, visit www.ichannel.ca.

cclay@mississauga.net

Buzz rakes PM over the coals

By: Radhika Panjwani

September 23, 2008 03:10 PM - Ottawa's short-sighted attitude towards the Canadian manufacturing industry is partly responsible for the country's economic woes, says Buzz Hargrove, one of Canada's best-known union leaders who retired this month after being at the helm of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) the past 16 years.

The Mississauga resident said Canada has to break away from its squeaky clean “cub scout” image if it wants to take on countries with protectionist economic policies.

Navigation

Election Blogs

Campaign Trail