Cobourg Blog

We have heard that few people truly understand the upcoming Referendum to be held on election day, October 10.  That’s partly because many people don’t care and partly because it’s complex.  But a vote in favour of the new system could change Provincial Politics forever.  So it’s very important that this issue has the right outcome.
The advantages are clear:  more say by minority parties and a party seat count closer to the total vote.  But notice that the improvements are for the party and not for the local voter.  If we fully trust Political parties to run the Province, then why bother with the idea of local representatives?  I think we can safely say we all like a local representative and we like him/her to be accountable.  This proposal is moving away from that - with fewer local representatives yet more politicians overall!

On top of that, if the changes are approved, we also get a Government with very little chance of forming a majority.  Other countries form coalitions when faced with this but this has never (perhaps rarely) happened in Canada.  Imagine the Bloc agreeing with any other party or even the NDP agreeing with anyone - remember a coalition requires general agreement, not agreement on one or two issues.

Let’s hope that the electors’ natural resistance to change will say NO to this proposal. It’s a bad idea.

If we want a system where all votes count, then use a single transferrable vote - sometimes called preferential voting.  This has it’s own set of problems but none of the problems of the proposed MMP system. Australia has been using it for over a 100 years to elect their House of Representatives (equivalent to the Commons).

John Draper

In Cobourg, new traffic lights seem to go up weekly and angry residents keep demanding 4-way stops on every intersection that does not have a traffic light yet. One residential street in the west end has 12 no parking signs.
Saw on City News that in the Dutch city of Drachten there are no stop lights, traffic signs or street markings and the divisions between where the road ends and the sidewalk starts are removed. Accident rates have gone down and traffic flows more smoothly.
The concept is called “Shared Space” and it was created by Dutch traffic specialist Hans Monderman. His idea: those who use the road are too busy looking at distracting signs, directions, instructions and prohibitions. His theory states that if drivers and pedestrians had to see and negotiate with each other to make the system work, it would create a safer environment overall.
Would laissez-faire traffic work in Cobourg?

Extending funding of schools to include all religions and not just Catholics seems fair to me. But if someone teaches Creationism as an alternative “theory” to Evolution, they are teaching Religion. There is absolutely no scientific basis for it. So of course it is not in the Science curiculum laid down by the Province. I disagree with many of the religious teachings taught in Religious schools but I also believe in freedom of religion. People teach kids at home about their beliefs including some whacky ones. So teaching these things in school is not so terrible. But it absolutely must be made clear when the kids are taught that it’s a religious belief and not science.

Then when kids grow up and get a mind of their own (usually around 25 - 30 - sorry students!), they can decide for themselves.

Teaching Creationism as an alternative science theory is plain bad science and wrong. I trust John Tory understands this point - but then I trust him to understand this more than I trust the news reporters to quote him correctly.

John Draper