Forbidden Planet

When we (and by we, I mean those of us in the developed first world) look at people in the developing world, we are often struck by the level of hardship endured by these people. So, being good citizens, we organize and deliver various forms of aid. Unfortunately, these are often tied up in rather arrogant attitudes on our part. Sometimes, I get the impression we believe that without our aid and assistance those poor people would be sitting in the dust trying to eat rocks - therefore, obviously, they need our knowledge to learn how to dig wells, how to plant crops and raise animals and, of course, how to run an effective government and judiciary. We tend to forget that these people have been living there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and have managed to survive thus far. While some of their woes may be due to antiquated or inadequate knowledge, the vast majority of their ills have nothing to do with ignorance. Image nabbed from here .

It stands for Mixed Member Proportional. In the upcoming Ontario provincial election, we are also asked to vote on whether or not to change our current electoral system from a first past the post to a mixed member proportional system. As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have ever been asked to vote for a new government and in a referendum simultaneously. In Canada and all the provinces and territories, our electoral system is a representational system. That is, the region involved in the election is subdivided into smaller regions (for this election, Ontario is divided into 107 regions or seats). Each region elects a representative to the legislature. In general, representatives belong to one of the 3 major political parties in Ontario (Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, and New Democratic Party). There are other parties, but they are small and generally don't account for much of the popular vote. On occasion an independent candidate will be elected, however, he (c...