Ontario? Already?

It's April 2012.  I should be talking about the Republican presidential primaries (probably next week) or the London Mayoral election (see last week) or even the Alberta elections (though I know little about Alberta politics).

I shouldn't be talking about a possible election in Ontario only six months after the last one.  But here we are anyway.  The Liberals, who finished one seat short of a majority in October, are facing a vote on their budget next week, and if that fails, we will by far have the shortest legislature in Ontario history.  As of now, the shortest-lived legislative assembly in Ontario still lasted well over 18 months (1975-1977), which is three times what we're facing next week.

London 2012 - State of the Campaign

London is 106 days away from hosting the 30th Olympic Summer Games, but before we get there, we have to elect a mayor and assembly in three weeks time.  Boris Johnson of the Conservative party is seeking his second term in office, and Ken Livingstone of the Labour party is looking to return to the mayor's office after being defeated four years ago.

Canadian Redistricting - and what it means for the balance of power

Last year, the government changed the formula that allocates House of Commons seats to provinces.  The size of the House will increase from 308 to 338 as a result both of this change and last year's census.


The breakdown by province of this increase is as follows:

• Ontario gains 15 seats, bringing it to 121
• British Columbia gains 6 seats, bringing it to 42
• Alberta also gains 6 seats, bringing it to 34
• Quebec gains 3 seats, bringing it to 78

The reason none of the other provinces get seats is because they are already over-represented in the House of Commons.   I touched on this on a post last year, so I won't go into it further.

Something else people have noticed is that, save Quebec, these are provinces where the Conservatives happened to have done well in last year's election.  So it begs the question: how does this change the balance of power?

Review: The Iron Lady

Even 21 years after she resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher is still considered the Marmite of British politics.  That's why I was intrigued to see The Iron Lady when it came out this weekend in London.

A follow-up to Thursday's Ontario election

This post will take a look at how my seat projection model turned out, as well as how the election results would have turned out under other electoral models.

Projection: McGuinty to win third term in Ontario

Two months ago, I was looking at opinion polls thinking that this election was Tim Hudak's to lose.  Now, three days away from election day, it looks like he has done just that.

A Look at a Proposed US Constitutional Amendment

Last month, the House Committee on the Judiciary reported House Joint Resolution 1, Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  It has received practically no media coverage since it was introduced, though that could be because the focus is on the debt ceiling negotiations.

A rule respecting balanced budgets is not at all a bad thing; we are seeing the American economy being pushed down by its $14.3 trillion debt.  However, this has absolutely zero hope of becoming part of the Constitution unless some fundamental issues are addressed.