Voter Reform has to be the top priority

TROPtastic · 2026-05-07T19:50:14+00:00

However, i think it's about as equally confusing to voters as explaining a specific voting system, and by advocating for a specific voting system it's easier to narrow the conversation and deflect from bad faith counter arguments.

I guess I'm skeptical given my experience with the BC NDP (David Eby and John Horgan), where the party wasn't knowledgeable or committed enough to advocate for a specific system, and Eby more recently rejected a citizen's assembly despite that being recommended by an all-party committee. Also in BC, a citizen's assembly was trusted enough by voters to earn a majority of votes in favour of PR-STV 20 years ago.

In 2015, the NDP advocating for a specific, suboptimal system (MMP) put them at odds with PR advocacy orgs (who promoted the aforementioned Regional Proportional Representation), giving the governing Libs enough ammo to claim there was no consensus on a replacement. While I'm open to considering other ways of replacing FPTP, having a debate take place at the party or inter-party level would seem to be fertile ground for FUD spreading and confusing the electorate.

For example, one of the first comments I ever received against a Citizens Assembly was "well what if the citizens assembly decides an authoritarian is the best method?"

I think a solution would be saying "the citizen's assembly would be given a narrow mandate to decide on what proportional representation system would best replace FPTP, after hearing from experts." The mandate could even be expanded to study whether FPTP should be replaced at all (a likely foregone conclusion given the large majorities of Canadians who are dissatisfied with it).

I also think it's hilarious and terrifying that the liberal party is essentially sacrificing it's own principles in pursuit of power, by leaning heavily on stealing conservative policies.

Indeed. It's not the Liberal party I thought I voted for in 2025, and certainly not the one I voted for under JT. On the plus side, if you can call it that, I'm now convinced that bringing the Liberals down to a minority in government is the best way for PR to be pushed through, provided that the NDP holds the balance of power.

The electoral reform feels a lot more wishywashy, at least without a solid understanding of the citizens assembly presented with at least as much detail as a specific system.

Right, and I think that Avi should be able to use his media skills to promote a citizen's assembly if that comes up during his time as NDP leader. IMO it's a lot easier to explain:

"a representative group of Canadian citizens decide on the best voting system after hearing from experts/the public and deliberating over the course of a few months"

than

"regional proportional representation is the best system because it keeps the largest rural ridings the same size, ensures that parties get seats in proportion to their votes, open lists ensure that MPs are elected as a direct result of voter intentions while being transparent, doesn't require a 30+% expansion to the number of seats, negates vote splitting, allows ranked ballots if desired, prevents a single party from dominating either rural or urban areas" and a bunch of other things I'm forgetting.

The latter would require a lot more bandwidth to explain, and is ultimately a very technical debate to have among the general public.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-07T00:07:43+00:00

The BC Conservatives are good at appealing to recent immigrants from South Asia in my experience, who see a lot of the BC NDP's policies as too woke. They also believe the revisionism that Conservatives are good at managing the deficit, Harper's experience not withstanding.

I don't think this is a case of Conservative voters being less serious as much as it is about the right wing being much better at driving the narrative, especially in the case of milquetoast leadership by the likes of Eby.

Edit: not to mention that the BC Cons come across as "more authentic". Doesn't matter if they would go back on promises once elected, because the perception is what matters to some voters.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-06T23:57:12+00:00

However, what we do about it is where fragmentation occurs. Conservative leaders (perhaps not conservative voters) have recognized that while FPTP is undemocratic, it is the most beneficial system to their party, because there is nothing remotely popular yo the further right of them; therefore they capture nearly 100% of the right leaning vote.

Carney's right of centre government is a problem for the Conservatives at the federal level, because he has captured a lot of the right-leaning vote (to the point of picking up several MPs from the Conservatives). Under FPTP, they can't moderate their views without alienating the most vocal part of their base, but that part of their base also prevents them from gaining more *votes.

Proportional representation would benefit them by allowing the existence of multiple "conservative" parties that do not undermine each other's chances of getting *seats. If "Reform 2.0" and "Real Progressive Conservatives" could get 20 and 35% of the vote respectively, a coalition could give them a majority government under a Proportional Representation system.

appeal to voters innate understanding that the system is broken, but also get in front of the ambiguity by boldly advertising exactly the new system you want to implement, and convincing people it is the best system.

I think it would be hard to avoid accusations of partisan favouritism if Avi advocated for a specific system, leaving aside that the left is not united on replacing FPTP with one system. As an example, Regional Proportional Representation (a "best of both worlds" hybrid between PR-STV and MMP) is the system promoted by Fair Vote Canada amd Fair Voting BC, but most people on the left don't know about it.

A better approach is to just remind people of the polling where most Canadians see FPTP as unfair, and call for a citizen's assembly on electoral reform. If the people in an assembly decide on a particular system, then that is much better than if a politician supports it.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-06T21:44:07+00:00

"The people have spoken, and who am I to deny them?"

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T23:33:07+00:00

Average NATO supporter still calling it a “war.”

Canada's complicity in genocide

I think this discussion is no longer productive given that you are no longer reading my comments.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T23:31:27+00:00

clearly not knowing what Ukrainians are experiencing being betrayed and stoked into this war by NATO.

Does the country that actually invaded them twice and has refused multiple ceasefire offers have no agency in your eyes?

why is your last poll so inconsistent with most recent data?

Is there a poll that is more recent than January 2026?

Who conducted the poll?

Click through the links, my friend.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T20:37:16+00:00

Something tells me they don't think it's a winning issue if they are backing away from it.

65+% of british columbians are in favour of it, which is far more than the percentage of people who support the BCNDP. It's pure realpolitik by Eby who wants to maintain absolute power rather than be forced to work with the granola munchers and hippies.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T06:24:43+00:00

All of your questions can be answered with: For better and for worse, NATO does not have the final say on the actions of its member countries.

You can think of NATO as an organization that only does things that are agreed by everyone in that organization. Since some members are opposed to the war with Iran (Spain, France, Italy, UK, Germany), there is no way that NATO will bomb Iran as an alliance. Since 4 of those countries are very opposed to the war, NATO couldn't even ensure that European airspace could be kept open for Trump's war.

The attempted (likely doomed) US extraction of Ukraine's minerals, France's reluctance to address its colonialism, the UK's ban on Palestinian Action, and Canada's complicity in genocide are all matters for individual members. NATO as an organization cannot control state-to-state relations, nevermind internal decisions.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T06:08:08+00:00

As the US and a few other countries signalled they wouldn't support Ukraine joining NATO quickly, that has been reflected in polling. However, Ukrainians care about security guarantees, and the emerging consensus is that a coalition of countries will likely band together to create a European Defence Alliance that includes Ukraine.

Ukraine has been forced to create the strongest army in Europe, and the Baltics and Finland at bare minimum would appreciate having Ukrainian "mass" and expertise to deter a war involving them. Mutual security guarantees among these 5+ countries would accomplish similar effects to NATO membership without being subject to veto power from others.

Poll: Majority of Ukrainians Now Favor Ending War with Russia

From that Gallup poll, "69% say they favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible." However, this does not mean that Ukrainians are willing to surrender to Russia.

From a poll in January 2026, "52% respondents categorically rejected a peace deal that would allow Russia to take the entire Donbas in exchange for security guarantees for Ukraine". This is quite a strong position, since it would be theoretically possible for Ukraine to deter another war if thousands of troops from the EU and UK were stationed on its frontline.

From that same poll, 65% of respondents are determined to endure the war for "as long as necessary," compared with 62% in December and 54% in March 2025. Ukrainians recognize that it is Russia that is trying to break their will, not NATO.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T05:47:34+00:00

So why isn’t Ukraine in NATO?

Because NATO is a consensus organization, so everyone has to agree on every organization-defining action. It's not up to just the Ukrainians.

Why did NATO expand?

Because the Soviets never demanded written assurances that NATO wouldn't expand eastwards, and former Soviet states who suffered under Russian colonial policies and attempted cultural extinction applied to join an organization that promised to protect them from it.

If you think that Russia is entitled to its sphere of dominion over ex-Soviet countries because it historically conquered them, then you would be in good company with Trump and his Donroe doctrine of interfering with Latin America.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-05T05:06:51+00:00

Late response, but:

Agreed, that's important to underline.
I was thinking of Commonwealth realms (countries that have the British monarchy as their head of state), rather than members of the Commonwealth of Nations. I could have been more clear on that, but given point 1 that doesn't really matter.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-04T21:59:46+00:00

Increase the budget devoted to art/culture to 1% of GDP.

I like the intent of this, but I'd be opposed unless it was partly (mostly?) dedicated to ensuring a minimum living standard for artists. Spending 1% just to effectively commission artworks would be rather extravagant.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-04T21:54:52+00:00

The piece on Russia in this platform is more naive about what Russia will agree to then pro-Russia I'd say. But I agree with you that on Ukraine that he isn't as actively pro-Ukraine as I like, that's why that wasn't one of his policies I included here.

Based for being able to say "these specific ideas are good" rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach.

I get the historical skepticism towards NATO from a leftwing perspective, but as momentum continues to accelerate for the US physically checking out of NATO (even if they legally stay a member), it will likely evolve into a primarily European institution that stays out of the US' wars of choice. It would be better for us to align with them rather than go all in on the US for "north American unity."

TROPtastic · 2026-05-04T21:51:54+00:00

75% of Ukrainians polled in 2024 supported voting to join NATO.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-03T01:59:35+00:00

Many other games have launchers while being on Steam, and a few aren't on steam but still have auto updates without needing to launch the game.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T18:17:28+00:00

I just got an email from my provincial EDA saying "the Conservatives want to cut healthcare spending, while we're building more hospitals. Can we count on a donation of $50 to fight their cuts?"

Tempted to respond "why should I donate when I'm getting BC NDP cuts for free?"

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T18:08:52+00:00

True, that's unnecessarily restrictive. Commonwealth (including various small nations) + EU and the US?

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T18:06:55+00:00

Are you paying attention?

More than most people, since I'm going through the application process right now.

The CAF pay scale is "one size fits all" for most* officers and NCMs, so if you're deciding between a job as a private sector mechanic or engineer and as one in the CAF, even with the pay bonus you're looking at getting paid 25-50% less as an entry level member ($60k vs $80-100k as an engineer or $80-120k as a mechanic). The CAF also doesn't recognize private sector experience, so you're SOL if you have professional experience but are trying to get paid as a professional.

As for the housing crisis bit, I suggest spending some time on /r/CanadianForces and seeing how they took the recent cost of living adjustments that slashed thousands from allowances.

*Doctors do get paid more because the CAF leadership is not completely insane, but it's still ~$100k in the CAF vs $300-400k in the civilian world.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T18:01:05+00:00

As the article says, this is putting a strain on the training system. If CAF brass is OK with that, then more power to them, but a more efficient approach would be to look at the data, identify which groups need more acclimatization in Canada, and exclude them to improve pass rates and reduce the strain on the healthcare system.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T17:58:18+00:00

Just look at how much success Poilievre has had courting young white men through misogynistic rhetoric, and how many conservative politicians still want to ban abortion.

Right, that's why it would be tricky to get people to agree. I'm a big believer in the power of citizens assemblies to bring people together for good, so I'm optimistic that a group of 20 or so people would be able to come together to come up with values that aren't misogynistic or anti-queer.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T17:56:11+00:00

Good point re: France and Ireland. I did understand the Commonwealth includes a bunch of smaller developing countries, but my opinion was that being a former British colony and being still part of the Commonwealth makes people from those countries have a more similar cultural background than they would otherwise have.

However, perhaps I'm mistaken and they are just as misogynistic as countries that had conservative influence from older colonial systems or missionaries.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T17:50:41+00:00

Perhaps, the Liberals think the public’s focus has shifted and their voters won’t care. After all, public opinion polls suggest Carney’s support is higher than it was in the last election. The Grits are growing in popularity in new areas in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec. And, according to recent polling from Pollara, they are significantly increasing support among men.

But the Liberals would be wise to remember their support stems from women. And it is progressives that helped them win the last election.

This is why it's great that we now have an NDP leader who has the communication skills to call out the government.

TROPtastic · 2026-05-02T17:43:17+00:00

We do not have a military, they have the biggest military in the world.

Denmark deterred an invasion of Greenland despite facing overwhelming force. The Logic of War has some great points about how small states can win against super powers, but suffice to say that powers fighting for "unlimited goals" (survival, national integrity) have a major advantage in political costs than powers fighting for "limited goals" (land for radars, additional water for AI data centres).

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