Election Time

[Zeroth]

So, its election time soon, it looks like.

As we are all programmers, and practitioners(and researchers) of computer science, I was curious as to what particular beliefs are important to a growing and quite important segment of the population? (Related to Technology. The other political stuff is too much of a minefield with too many interested parties with agendas to deal with.)

Personally, they do need to revamp copyright. Not because we're not up to "world standards", because we are, and in fact, rated as sixth best country in regards to protection and enforcement of copyright. The US... is at 14. But, no, copyright needs to be revamped for several reasons: A) To fight corporatism. There is a growing trend of globalized companies placing undue and unjust pressures on countries and governments to get their way. The citizens of Canada come before all multi-national corporations... even local corporations. And our rights and freedoms come before these companies as well. B) We need to develop a strong, innovative framework for copyright and intellectual property to deal with the changes our society is undergoing. We need a framework, that no matter what advances happen in technology and society, that still makes sense. Canada could lead the way in copyright innovation, to take up the slack where the US used to be the leader(ever read the Constitution? Brilliant piece, progressive and adaptable.)

Other issues include energy concerns, for example viable means to find replacements, that also don't injure the water or food supplies of the world. Oil should be used, for the time being, with the taxes on oil and oil companies going towards University research into alternate energy means. The more profit oil companies make off of Canada's huge stores of oil, the more money that should go towards alternative energy. Subsidies to home-owners on solar panels, and an update to our national power infrastructure to allow people to put power back INTO the power grid.

And last issue, I think, is one that affects every student: tuition. If we look at the example of Ireland, where post-secondary education has been free for just over 8 years now, we see that their economy is growing by leaps and bounds, with lots of research and development beginning to be located there. We need the politicians to understand they need to stay the course, and not allow ego to get into it. Once a plan is made, if a new government comes in, they should not alter or add or rescind a previous undertaking just because they didn't come up with it. Ireland managed to stay the course, and their unemployment is at its historical lowest, the IRA has been less and less active as more money comes in, etc. The benefits are huge when a country does what Ireland did. And Canada needs that.

Canada has unique resources, and unique challenges, and in the past, we've managed to parlay those into incredible advantages, for example, telecommunications. Several Canadian telco equipment companies are the main suppliers for countries around the world that face similar challenges, like Russia, India, and rural China. We developer fiber optics. We developed the technology behind communications satellites. We have extensive natural resources, and one of the highest rates of literacy amongst the G8. We have a highly educated populace, and a dynamic and welcoming culture. We need to focus on those, and look towards bringing Canada into the future. We, as citizens, need to tell our MPs and their opposition what we want, and we need to band together to ensure they listen to us.

Currently the political situation in Canada is untenable. Picture a beach, a mile long, and two ice cream stores. They agree to operate on opposite ends of the beach, to avoid impacting each other's customers. However, one moves a bit closer to the center, to get more customers, and so the other store does so as well. And this keeps happening, till both ice cream stores are smack dab in the center, trying to get sales from the same batch of customers, leaving all of the customers all along the beach unserved. That is whats happened to the Liberal and Conservative parties of Canada. They are both nearly identical, and clamoring over the same limited segment of the population, when there are so many left unsatisfied along the political spectrum. This needs to change.

[btiffin]

On that; someone young should start the Open Party of Canada. Let every vote in the house be a proxy vote based total democracy model. If you don't log into the secure vote taking system, the vote of your elected official counts by proxy. if you do vote, the proxy is removed. Every piece of federal legislation would be counted from 30 million votes. Each town by it's thousands or millions. If you don't have time or don't care then the elected official's vote counts for yours.

If people in a riding think it is important enough, and everyone votes, then the elected official will have very little influence and bribes or threats from corporations or foreign powers will have little or no effect. The prime minister will never again be in a position to threaten a member of the house with dismissal for not following party lines.

Democracy; government by the people, not leadership by elites - elected representation called "democracy" to make us feel better. It may be the only way to ensure your grandkids get a chance to see their grandkids drink clean water and breathe clean air (and have jobs, and not have to go to wars that satisfy a few power brokers more than the general population, yada yada).

Elected representation is far too susceptible to corruption and deal making.

And this leads back to technology. The proxy system would need to be as secure as Interac, and we know that it is possible to do as Interac has never once admitted a breach of the system. Only individual identity theft, not a breach of the system as a whole.

Of course, current powers that be will kill you for starting such a party. They lip-flap "democracy" when they really endorse leadership by the elite.

And if you are told that only elites can govern, well Sir Francis ??? way back when decided to prove that Lords were the only men capable of making valid decisions. So he paid to do research having thousands of common men guess how many jelly beans were in a jar. No one got it right so Sir Francis boldly claimed "See! Common people got it wrong everytime". Then one of those commoners added up the guesses and took the average. BANG ON correct. The masses got it exactly right "en masse". When a submarine went missing, four different teams made their best guess as to where to start looking. Navy, Coast Guard, Scientists, and salvage operators (? details may be wrong) . Each predicted location was hundreds of miles apart. When the guesses were merged into a geographical averge ... the submarine was found within 300 yards of the common point.

So, I can't trust you to make good decisions, you can't trust me, but WE can trust US to make the best decision available.

Current politicians (and the people that pay and "play" them) won't like that - removes seats of power and dilutes it for the common good. Hard to make money heaps and power grabs in that environment. So they will choke us all in pollution to keep power and may well simply disappear any individual that suggests a better way of running "democracy".

But I'll opine; if you want your 10th generation descendants to have any chance at a semi-good life, change is the only way. And not Harper or Dion kinda change, but embracing total democracy. Get Dan and Tony to write the polling system (while in some safe bunker - away from current government snipers and with access to the World Bank security code) and the future may be bright. Otherwise I predict doom for humans as a few individuals use everyone else as pawns until it is too late to do anything. We've already killed off all the frogs ... the billions of passenger pigeons ... the (add extinct lifeform here) and still we are all fed the bull that elected representatives are the only ones able to save us and the crap that we all need to buy a bigger better car. Wrong!

Cheers

[Dan]

btiffin the Open Party sounds like a great idea and on the surface and in most cases it probably is. However my worry would be when issues/bills come up that are exteramly imporant to an minority in Canada but not nessarly to the magority of peoleop in Canada.

For example support for peoleop with disablites. Most canadians will never benfite from money being spent this way but it is critical imporent to peoleop with disblitaites. I think that if poeleop could vote in private with no acountablity for there vote they would be of the mind set "why send my tax money on peoleop i don't know or care about?". But if an MP was to vote in such a way there would be masive back lash and they would have to be acoutnable to that minoirty and the peoleop of canada.

Also take issues like if gay marige and relgiuies issues. Most MPs are smart enought to keep a speartion of church and sate becues they are acountable and there votes are public. If we went to each cainaidan voting on each issue the domaninate religuses faction would be in control threw there members. Things like gay mariarge and teaching elvoution in schools could be indarge and up to the will of the reiliguses magority.

Some things should not be up to the magority to decied like humman rights, support for the needey and our other rights as canadians. Acuataly i would like to see thess more proctected from MPs as well but at least you can hold MPs acoutnable for there voting.



EDIT: Also here is some poll data for any one intrested: http://paulitics.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/tories-recover-on-eve-of-election-but-still-down-from-2006/

[Zeroth]

The problem isn't just minority groups; Its minority groups that want something that affects the rest of us. For example, certain fundamentalist religious groups.

Really, it all comes down to one essential flaw in humanity: we are selfish and power-hungry.

But ignoring that, by removing the politician's powers on issues that people care about is a beautiful mechanic. And, one other important thing thats needed: source control for bills. We need to know who attaches what rider to what bill. And there should be no way to sneak in provisions to a bill. One key item that the Open Party of Canada would need is efficient search/summary engines for summarizing/searching bills at the Municipal, Provincial and Federal level.

Ironically enough, when I was younger, btiffin, I was involved with a group that was trying to do what you suggest. But it kind of ran out of steam, and kept focusing on political issues and discussions. :/ There are ways to have a secure system, without the requirements of Interac.(Interac only works because the debit machines are essentially tamper-proof and destroy themselves if tampered with. As well, no store owns one, they are rented.)

For example, running the vote program inside an encrypted vm, with 3 other neighbours inspecting that VM to ensure it has not been tampered with. Each of those neighbours are in turn inspected by another 3 random nodes, and so on. The results are sent in, encrypted end to end with a combination of a unique per-voter one time pad and ssl. One-time pad will be on a thumb-drive unlocked with the SSN or other valid identifying info. Just plug the thumb drive in, start up the vote program, and away you go. Going to any publically funded vote machine, and popping in the thumb drive, the voter can check their votes at any time, on an independent machine.

The purpose of the OTP is to prevent code breaking by quantum computers in the years ahead.

It would certainly speed things up, I think. We'd still have politicians, but they will instead represent our area, instead of a party. The order of concerns for politicians should be: Canada, their area, and finally, them. Instead its them, their party, their area, and Canada.

Issues that would have to be faced: lack of rural broadband, technological illiteracy, and people selling their votes.

[btiffin]

Dan;
Yeah, I skimped out on details for that post ... not wanting to look like "that guy, with his manifesto" Even though I am that guy with his manifesto.

Proxy Democracy;

Director - top people, asks questions and in the military branch have powers to place citizens (hopefully soldiers) in harms way. In the judicial branch, have powers to remove people's freedom and throw them in jail or asylums etc... We would all still be bound by the rule of law.
Elected - hold default proxies - but citizens have access to 1-800-vote-the-bum-out lines.
Trusted - need people you can trust. Judges, and police and ... they have exceptional powers that are immediate and cannot be questioned until the informed bring up the issue at a later date.
Informed - proof of some form of expertise on a topic, by passing a test and verified time in. They can gang up on the trusted, the elected and directors and cause a mass veto vote. They would hopefully filter the vast information load for public consumption
General Proxy holders - anyone can assign a proxy to anyone else in "departmental" areas. Sports, criminal law, social, budget etc... This is where we get to human competitive nature where charismatic people may carry quite a few votes and would keep us all involved trying to get more power (never absolute) by demonstrating knowledge and perception.
Us - anytime we feel like voting we can. So proxy holders would never have complete grip, not if enough of us care. If we don't then we get what we deserve (being similar to our current system in the worst case scenario).

The Director, elected, trusted and informed would hopefully put the kibosh on any "mob rule" mentality we may fall into re stupid human nature while also keeping a lot of the day to day information overload out of people's hair.

But ... I'll opine. You mentioned gay marriage and helping the disabled ... how many of us are actually idiots? We may think the "other guy" is an idiot but that other guy is also thinking the "other guy" is an idiot. The Sir Francis case. In the large; humans, come up with the right answer as long as you average things out and have mechanism to avoid "mob rule", as what you mentioned could well come to pass if we all got into the odd stampede mentality.

It's kind of like the fear the War on Drugs would have you believe would happen with decriminalization. How many people do you think would quit their jobs, go on the dole to spend the whole day smoking pot? And then think ... how many people worry that the "other guy" would quit their job to be a pothead? Sure some would, but most humans like to work, like to strive and look at addicts as complete losers. They may find if the War ever ends, that the people that would quit to be druggies already have quit to be druggies but they would no longer have any need to shoot innocent bystanders in drive by turf struggles for underground cash.

There is more to my manifesto ... but it makes ya look like a weirdo publishing stuff like this. It's why I like to keep quiet on compsci. Wouldn't want anyone here to think I'm a weirdo.

Cheers

[Dan]

And it starts: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/07/election-call.html

Edit: More stats: http://paulitics.wordpress.com/polls-provincialregional-breakdown/