

Four Canadian university students elected to Parliament - gregpilling
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/05/four-mcgill-students-elected-to-parliament/

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jfruh
It goes to show that having the government chosen by accumulated individual
local elections in kind of silly. Quebecois thought Layton did great in the
French-language debate, wanted him as PM, and voted for whatever NDP was on
their ballot locally. This resulted in oddities like a monolingual Anglophone
being elected in a riding that is 80 percent monolingual Francophone. A mixed-
member proportional system like they have in Germany would fix this -- you
have separate votes for who you want to be your local rep and who you want to
control the government.

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paulitex
Hate to be the guy trying to kill the story, but this article absolutely
doesn't belong here. It's political gossip. I really don't want to see this
type of stuff when I come to HN, it's not even remotely "gratifying one's
intellectual curiosity".

"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters,
or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-
topic. "

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

Flag (and remove) please.

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pg
The guidelines also say:

"Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate
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you did."

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zitterbewegung
Here is an article with more background about the people that were elected.
[http://www.vancouversun.com/news/decision-
canada/Five+McGill...](http://www.vancouversun.com/news/decision-
canada/Five+McGill+students+elected/4723336/story.html)

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mast
I don't think inexperience in the NDP is really going to be much of an issue
initially. Given that the Conservatives now have a majority, even a veteran
opposition would have a hard time being effective.

Hopefully, we'll see these "kids" bring some enthusiasm and idealism to
parliment.

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mrcharles
What do four college kids, a cage fighter, a bartender, and a musician have in
common?

(I don't know)

Jack Layton doesn't know either.

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mrcharles
Oh come on, it's not a criticism of the NDP so much as having a chuckle at
such a strange election outcome. It's also proof that people don't actually
care about the MP they are voting for. People only vote based on party.

I'm an NDP supporter, but even I can find a reason to laugh at this whole
thing. I still think it's positive, however.

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ZeSmith
I'd say people vote more for the party's leader. But yeah, they don't care
about the MP.

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gamble
Why should they? Parliamentary government is essentially a dictatorship of the
prime minister. Government MPs are barely relevant, much less opposition MPs.

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iwwr
It's surprising the 'Bloc' no longer has such a political influence. Have
Quebec's secessionist ambitions been quelled?

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wmoxam
No, in fact there's a good chance that the Parti Quebecois will win the next
provincial election. Separatism still has mass support in Quebec.

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JaretManuel
The separatism issue is far from over in Quebec. The NDP is the hero of the
day or shall we say a "testing of the waters". If Quebec doesn't like this
test, they'll banish the NDP is quick as they came in, and it will not
surprise me in the least if the PQ win the provincial election as well.

Blame Canada! (Southpark)

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volandovengo
Awesome news! Isn't it pretty unprecedented for students to be elected to
parliament?

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mrcharles
Nope, there was a 20 year old elected in the 70s. But what is unprecedented is
the sheer amount of people who got in this election who are, what some would
say, unqualified.

Me, I'm happy about having fresh people in parliament who have yet to become
politicians.

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JaretManuel
Although is wasn't my favourite politician (for my own provincial reasons
shall we say) Brian Tobin started out very young. I believe he was in
university or dropped out and was on a local radio station for a bit. One has
to respect his accomplishments.

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xnerdr
Although this sounds like great news, I'd suggest it's not. Reasons being, yes
it brings energy to government, but also inexperience. Further, it shows the
ridiculousness of "elected representatives" when no one has heard of them
(they're elected because their party is wanted in government, not because of
their particular talents in politics as individuals) and as one commentator
says, the representative didn't even turn up at their own celebration.
Democracy in it's current form in Canada is a joke.

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mrcharles
I'd rather see the bright side of having some people who aren't politicians in
politics, rather than yet more lawyers and businessmen who will likely vote
primarily along their own interests rather than along actual idealism.

