24 Season 7 Trailer

At the site 24trailer.com, you can see the preview of the next season of 24. If you're a fan of the show, and haven't seen the trailer yet, I won't spoil it for you... BUT GO THERE NOW! It is, by far, the

BEST
THING
EVER!

even better than beef stew.

It's Tech Toys Tuesday!

A couple of exciting things I found out about today. 1) The new Mac OS has been officially announced. The release date is October 26. That was all I was waiting for, so in a couple weeks I'll have a shiny new iMac. 2) The 5 free HD-DVD deal for buying the HD-DVD drive for the XBox 360 has finally come to Canada. Granted the movies they offer mostly suck, but I just might get one anyway.

In other gaming news, Guitar Hero 3 is due out on October 28, which I totally plan to get. Also, I'm still having a bunch of fun with Halo 3, even though my only online buddy that I've played with went and joined the Navy. Damn you Joe!

I Feared This Would Happen

So, even though I was not in favour of MMP in the referendum (unlike most of my friends), I was actually hoping for a much closer result than the one we got... perhaps in the order of 50-50. The reason being that I think a bit of reform is necessary, but not MMP in the form it was proposed. However, I feared that if MMP was soundly defeated like it was, it would be viewed as "the people have spoken, they like FPTP". That was why I didn't like the referendum question... you're either for FPTP or for MMP... nothing else. So, now that McGuinty has basically said that the issue is closed, what now? Will there be another shot at electoral reform?

Here's my proposal... increase the number of ridings in Ontario (perhaps to the 130 level that was proposed by MMP, or even up to 150) and introduce Instant Runoff Voting. My thinking is this... a smaller sample size will be more likely to produce results that are different from the provincial trend, and IRV might encourage people to vote for smaller parties as their #1 vote. Of course, the drawback to this is that you won't get the exact proportional representation that MMP would have produced, but because of it's similarity to our current system, it might be easier to implement. What do you think? I'm interested to hear if the MMP supporters would think this doesn't go far enough, or if the FPTP supporters think this is too much of a change.

Take A Stand, Old Lady. Take A Stand

So, I go down to vote this afternoon and there's only one other person at the polling station besides me there to vote. I had to wait until she was checked in and voted. While I was getting checked in, she comes back with her ballots and proudly declares to the polling station workers there, "I didn't use the second one!", giving off the impression that she was making a stand by not voting in the referendum. Of course, it was more likely that she never bothered to inform herself on the referendum and she looked at the ballot thinking, "what the hell is this?" That got me thinking how difficult it must be to inform yourself on the candidates, but be unaware of the referendum. It would be pretty impossible not to know about the referendum if you paid any attention to the election. Which, of course, brings me to the conclusion that people probably didn't inform themselves about the actual election and probably voted for the same party they've voted for for decades.

Now that's democracy inaction.

Decisions, Decisions

Well, the polls are open. All I have to do is head on down to the first floor of my building to cast my ballot. How convenient! The only problem... I still don't know who to cast my ballot for.

Election Day Tomorrow

Just doing my public service duty by informing my loyal readers (most of which are already aware) that tomorrow is election day here in Ontario. As an added bonus, it's also referendum day. The election of a new legislature is a yawn-fest in my opinion, with there being no real pressing issue facing the electorate. For this reason, I predict (as many others are) a return to power for the Liberals... not that I'll necessarily be voting for them.

However, this referendum is intriguing to me. The question being posed is whether we want to dump the current electoral system (first past the post) for a new system (mixed member proportional). The biggest flaws of the first past the post system is that it is difficult for smaller parties to gain seats and that a majority government can be won without a majority of popular vote, basically making the legislature not proportional to the popular vote in terms of party seats. Mixed member proportional will have the number of seats per party representative of the popular vote by introducing "list" members of provincial parliament. This is, in my opinion, MMPs biggest drawback. It will create two classes of MPPs, one who was elected in a riding and one who was appointed by a party. It's the party list MPPs that concern me. They will not be responsible for a constituency (although, the argument is that they represent the riding of "Ontario", which is a cop-out) and have the real possibility that they'll just turn into cushy jobs for big party supporters. Another drawback to the MMP system is that we will probably never get a majority government again. While I don't dislike minority governments, I would prefer that they not be in all the time. Tomorrow, I'll be voting "No".

I don't like this referendum, and I'll tell you why. I think that our system could use an update. First past the post does create an unbalanced number or party seats. I'd like a change... just not MMP. And this is the inherent problem with the question being asked tomorrow. If I vote for first past the post, it'll be saying I like that system... If I vote for mixed member proportional, it'll be saying, I think this is the system we need. Neither of those answers reflect my opinion. However, this is what I believe: Electoral reform is coming... whether it's this election or the next or another... it's coming. I'm voting for FPTP in the hopes that a better system will be proposed next time around. If MMP wins, it'll be a long time before another system is proposed. "What other systems?", you may ask. Well, I like the system that BC voted on recently, a variation of Single Transferable Vote , but it still has elements I don't like, as in multi member ridings. Another system, which is closer to our current FPTP, is Instant Runoff Voting, where one would rank all the candidates, and 50% of the vote would be required to become elected, and if 50% isn't reached, the lowest vote getter is dropped from the ballot. The drawback here is that the effect on the proportion of seats is muted, at best.

I suppose the bottom line is that no system is perfect, and it'll come down to personal preference for each voter. In any case, if you've skipped my unnecessarily long post to the end here, just get out and vote.

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As a side note: I read an article in the London Free Press this weekend (which I can't find online) where a series of questions was asked to the chairs of both the MMP and FPTP campaign. One question was what was the biggest problem with this referendum campaign. The MMP guy said the lack of information/education about MMP... which I think is understandable. But he went on to say that since the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform voted 94-8 in favour of MMP, the popular vote should be in the same proportion (ie. 92% in favour of MMP). If it was less, he said, then the only explanation is that people didn't know about it. Since I couldn't find the article online to recheck it, I suppose there's a chance that I misread it... But if memory serves me correct, what arrogance! I suppose it couldn't possibly be because people don't like it? Anyway, that just stuck in my head.

The Changing Of The Seasons

So, the unseasonable (read: unbelievably) hot weather could have only meant one thing this past weekend. It's time to put the hard top back on the Jeep! Yes, as counter-intuitive as it seemed, I rode around with the top down one last time this weekend and then sealed it up for another winter. I think it might have been the first time I've had to use air-conditioning while the hard top is on (not counting the defroster). So, for everyone who missed out on some topless fun this summer, you'll now have to wait until next May.

There are only two seasons: Hard top and Soft top.

Today, We're All Undefeated

Glorious day! Tonight is the first game of the curling season. As it's the first game, tonight's match will only be an practice game, but it's the perfect opportunity to match last season's win total. Stay tuned...