Maija and I have had a lovely Christmas with family in Finland, and then spent a few days with friends. Tonight we’re off to party at a cottage with another bunch of friends, and so I shall wish you a Happy New Years!
As is my custom, I offer a new years eve mix, commemorating 2008. Please enjoy responsibly.
2008 has been an excellent year for trance and house music. Just superb. And I think my New Years mix reflects that. We start off showcasing some juicy prog house, and gradually move into some of the best trance music I’ve come across in years. Biggups to all these artists, who are producing great music! And biggups to you for completing another year. Have a great new years celebration and an even better 2009.
J Puddy – Goodbye 2008 – high quality
J Puddy – Goodbye 2008 – low quality
Tracklist:
mango – every sunrise (joel armstrong remix)
dinka – slightly different
shiloh – push
chunk and twist – battery life
john dahlback – blink (d.o.n.s dbn chainsaw remix)
w&w – mustang
kate bush – running up that hill (infusion vs joel armstrong remix)
andy moor – fake awake
armin van buuren feat sharon den adel – in and out of love (the blizzard remix)
ilya soloviev – sunwaves (static blue remix)
ilya soloviev & paul miller – lover summer (orjan nilsen remix)
4mal – time is burning (topher jones)
sunlounger feat zara – lost
Happy New Year! Enjoy!
Following on from my last post, a good friend sent me this article in Macleans. Here’s a snippet:
THERE IS nothing wrong with minority governments, per se. It depends what kind of minority. Do we want the kinds of minority Parliaments we have had in recent years, a clutch of hobbled regional or quasi-regional parties, fingers perpetually on the button, endlessly threatening to pitch us all into another pointless election in the vain hope that, if the swing voters can be distracted in their direction, if the splits go their way, if they can demean and belittle their opponents enough, if they can depress turnout even further than before, they might just fluke their way into a majority? Or will we accept that, whatever the ancient glories of the two-party system, it no longer exists?
If we must have five-party politics, let them at least be parties with real differences, and national appeal. Away with the system that guarantees the Bloc two-thirds of the seats in Quebec on the strength of little more than one-third of the vote. Away with the ghettos of Conservative Alberta, or Liberal Toronto, where it is scarcely worth campaigning, so predictable are the results. Away with “strategic voting,” and other attempts to tell people they may not vote for the party they support, but must vote against the party they fear. Away with the disgraceful situation of a party winning almost a million votes, as the Greens did this time out, and getting zero seats.
Indeed, when you think about it, many of the problems identified in this piece have their origins in the perverse incentives of our highly leveraged, winner-take-all electoral system. Why have the Tories degenerated into mush? Because they face no competition on the right, Reform-style uprisings being more or less outlawed for fear of “splitting the vote.” Why did the Liberals ignore their growing weakness all these years? Because they could still count on the bizarre distortions of first-past-the-post to reap a bushel of seats from one region or another. Why has the Bloc become an immovable blot on the national scene, long after its original purpose was exhausted? Ditto. Why have majority governments become next to impossible? Why has politics degenerated into such vicious, empty partisanship? Why do so many people no longer bother to vote? Because the system is broken, and if this election won’t persuade us to change it, nothing will.
If you’ve been following Canadian politics at all, you’ll know the last month has seen some very interesting headlines. I’m convinced now more than ever, that what Canada needs most is electoral reform. The current system of election is so remarkably unrepresentative of the population’s desires, that it’s no wonder we end up with back to back no-confidence votes and posturing to take over the government. No matter who you support, I believe you owe it to yourself to examine the way our government is elected, and to look at the alternatives.
Fair Vote Canada is a nonprofit, multi-partisan advocacy group for electoral reform in Canada. They published a paper back in 2005, on making Every Vote count, which you can read here. If that links goes down, I’m hosting a copy here as well. I encourage everyone to read it in it’s entirety, to gain an understanding of the voting alternatives, allowing you to decide for yourself if you think we’re currently being represented fairly.
(We’re not, by the way.)
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