Canada has just (Oct 2015) held a federal election that saw Party A, which became the Government at the 2011 election, slip to Opposition status, while Party B has now become the Government.
It's a huge change, yet statistically it has tiny roots:
In 2011 the Government received 39.6% of votes.
In 2015 the Government received 39.5% of votes.
In 2011 the Opposition received 30.6% of votes.
In 2015 the Opposition received 31.9% of votes.
A little math shows that if just 3.8% of the voters had switched their allegiance from Party B to Party A, that would have tipped the balance. So that tiny percentage controlled the outcome of the election.
That's significant because:
In 2011, 61.1% of eligible voters voted.
In 2015, 68.5% of eligible voters voted.
The increase in participation was 7.4%, more than enough to sway the election. A large part of that increase is thought to represent first-time voters.
The next federal election will be held in 2019 (or earlier, though that's unlikely). Four years is a long time in politics, and the close numbers suggest that - provided there's a level playing field for all the parties - anything may happen then.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Saturday, October 17, 2015
A flag is just a piece of cloth
There are at least two sides to every story, but the “progressive” side now dominates our media, educational institutions and levers of power. They demonize other views, and where possible suppress them altogether.
The most recent issue is the niqab. Other than Rex Murphy, whose announced retirement protects him from being fired, no journalist at a major media outlet has dared to present a viewpoint opposing those who are attacking the government’s position that faces must be uncovered at citizenship ceremonies.
As a good friend wrote to me this week, “If the niqab is just a piece of clothing, then so is the Ku Klux Klan’s hood, and a flag is just a piece of cloth. And a citizenship is just a piece of paper.”
A niqab is a political statement, a challenge to Canada and Canadian values. We cover our faces only when our health or safety are at risk, then expose them again to show who we are and identify with our society. A niqab may or may not be, as many claim, a sign of subjugation and violence against women, but it is clearly a refusal to integrate into our society – something the left does not want us to even discuss.
Zunera Ishaq, the woman in the niqab, works for the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Author and commentator Tarek Fatah reports that the Muslim Brotherhood described ICNA as teaching Muslims "that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands...so that...God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." (https://goo.gl/pfRbtX).
By changing Canadian law to accommodate Ishaq’s requirements even before she was a citizen, our Supreme Court has unwittingly cooperated with those goals. It is neither racist nor bigoted to recognize this as a small step along a road that could lead to the demise of our free society. And when we look back, it’s possible we may recognize the niqab as the first tiny flag of conquest.
(With acknowledgements to my good friend RT.)
The most recent issue is the niqab. Other than Rex Murphy, whose announced retirement protects him from being fired, no journalist at a major media outlet has dared to present a viewpoint opposing those who are attacking the government’s position that faces must be uncovered at citizenship ceremonies.
As a good friend wrote to me this week, “If the niqab is just a piece of clothing, then so is the Ku Klux Klan’s hood, and a flag is just a piece of cloth. And a citizenship is just a piece of paper.”
A niqab is a political statement, a challenge to Canada and Canadian values. We cover our faces only when our health or safety are at risk, then expose them again to show who we are and identify with our society. A niqab may or may not be, as many claim, a sign of subjugation and violence against women, but it is clearly a refusal to integrate into our society – something the left does not want us to even discuss.
Zunera Ishaq, the woman in the niqab, works for the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Author and commentator Tarek Fatah reports that the Muslim Brotherhood described ICNA as teaching Muslims "that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands...so that...God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." (https://goo.gl/pfRbtX).
By changing Canadian law to accommodate Ishaq’s requirements even before she was a citizen, our Supreme Court has unwittingly cooperated with those goals. It is neither racist nor bigoted to recognize this as a small step along a road that could lead to the demise of our free society. And when we look back, it’s possible we may recognize the niqab as the first tiny flag of conquest.
(With acknowledgements to my good friend RT.)
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