Emergency Review of Poems Underway!

According to the Toronto Star,

"a private Jewish school is reviewing samples of sexual and at times violent poetry written by its director – and posted on his website – after some parents complained the content is inappropriate for an educator."

Judging by the two excerpts posted online by The Star, his poetry is not particularly good, but I don't feel that it's bad enough to warrant a full review.

But since a review is what's been called for, I feel qualified to do so as I've been known to publish a line or two of verse on these pages myself.

Here are my thoughts and recommendations.


Dear Mr. Prashker,

Upon reviewing your poems, I feel you have stumbled upon some compelling imagery - and made some elementary mistakes.

The first poem, "For Agapé" relies too much on adjectives such as ironically, ardently, ineptly.

Tip 1: Show, don't tell Mr. Prashker.

For example, "fumbling with your bra" is a much better way to communicate "ardently if ineptly" than "ardently if ineptly" is. Of course fumbling with a bra could be seen as a cliché, but then, it's also familiar to a lot of people. Either way, you'll probably want to think up something yourself, since you're the one who has to decide whether it expresses what you want it to express.

Tip 2: Always consider cutting the last line of your poem.

Poets are often tempted to use the last line of the poem to summarize exactly what you meant. This removes the subtlety of what your saying and creates a kind of "ta-da" moment that readers are probably not as impressed with as you are. For example:

"F - - - the middle class" you said

"I am," I answered "I am."

But you were too preoccupied to hear

The second poem, "A Song of Self-overcoming" seems not so much a poem as a fragment. I think the idea needs further development. It has no clear sense of purpose or voice. So,

Tip 3: Poeple don't want to read grand pronouncements about human nature.

If they did, they'd go visit their aunts and uncles more often. If you want to write a poem about the time your uncle compared building a deck to the Bible's creation story, that's fine and it might end up being a very good poem. But you can't just write down whatever you want and call it a poem.

Consider the question of who is the speaker in the poem? Who are they talking to? What is the context?

Right now it sounds like your speaker is you (which could be why you're in so much trouble!) This poem certainly expresses your opinion about human nature and the state of the world - but isn't this the job of politicians? And if you're going to be a poet, you're going to need a bit more credibility than that lot.

Conclusion: I believe that you made a good start with these two pieces. As always, my advice is threefold: revision, revision, revision. I don't see anything here that warrants dismissal, particularly since you are not being paid to write poetry.

In solidarity,
DA

Referendum Day!

Wednesday October 10th is Referendum Day in Ontario, so get out and vote! But first, perhaps you've found yourself wondering about the citizen-endorsed Mixed Member Proportional election system that everyone is talking about.

What are Party Lists?

A Party List is each party's publicly available list of ranked candidates for the election. When a party wins a larger share of the vote than the number of the 90 local seats they win, members of their Party List are elected into the Legislature. Voters will be able to research each party's list before the election takes place and it would seem to me that individuals on the Party Lists would be placed under a lot of public scrutiny. The method each party uses to choose its list must also be made public.

Who's on the Party Lists? Will I be able to find out about them in advance?

Each Party's List will be published before the election along with the method which was used to select them. A Party List that's full of outstanding individuals will attract public support for that party. In other regions where this system is used, party lists usually follow gender parity and include greater diversity with respect to age, ethnicity and other demographic variables (this would an improvement over our current voting system - under FPTP 75 - 80% of our elected representatives are men!).

Doesn't this create a two-tiered legislature? Are their any advantages to having 39 List MPPs?

While Party List candidates don't have a local political constituency to serve, they are competing with the members of other parties lists for support and members of their own party for a good spot on the Party List - so it's in their interest to serve the people as best they can. While these List members wouldn't do constituency work, they also wouldn't receive funding for a consituency office or constituency staff. These representatives will also be able to take a broader view on big issues,and are able to consider how each decision will affect the whole province, rather than one particular riding.

What if a party stacks their party list with political cronies?

My advice - don't vote for a party that stacks their list with political cronies.
By the way, all the party hacks I could find are supporting the No Campaign.

When's the election?

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

What can I do?

Educate yourself - read the other point of view.Talk to everyone you know about the referendum. In order for democracy to function, people need to know what's at stake!

About the October 10th referendum on MMP

On October 10th, voters in Ontario will make history by voting in our first referendum since we repealed prohibition. The question is simple: Should Ontario adopt a new method of electing Members of Provincial Parliament or stick with the current system?

The alternative voting method is a form of proportional representation called the Mixed-Member Proportional system. The system was proposed by the Ontario Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform - a group of ordinary Ontario citizens who were selected to study the question of whether our current method of electing representatives in Ontario should be changed, and if so, to propose an alternative.

Let me get this out of the way: I will be voting in favour of the MMP - the new system proposed by the citizens assembly.

Here are some of the problems with our current system of electing provincial and federal representatives (referred to as a First Past the Post):

1. First Past the Post wastes dissenting votes. FPTP is a winner-take-all system - and winner-take-all makes losers of most. In the current system your vote is only effective if you vote for the winning candidate. While we count dissenting votes, they are not reflected in the make-up of the legislature. That is to say, when youvote for a losing candidate, your vote is effectively wasted - it hasno affect on which party forms the government or how many seats each party receives in the legislature.

In a system where most candidates win election in their riding with less than 50% of the vote, many voters remain unrepresented. Under the current system, voting for a party thatis unpopular in your riding will have no impact - isn't it time that we started counting these votes?

2. First Past the Post over represents populist regional parties like the Reform Party and the Bloc Quebecois and underrepresents parties with more diffuse national support (like theGreen Party and the NDP). For example, in the last federal election,the Bloc Quebecois won 1,553,201 votes and was rewarded with 51 seats in parliament. Meanwhile, the NDP won 2,589,597 votes and won only 29 seats. It took just over 30,000 votes elect a Bloc MP and almost 90,000 votes to elect one NDP member. One might think that the Green Party, which amassed over 600,000 votes would deserve at least 6 seats, but under our First Past the Post system,they didn't win any seats. 600,000 people were entitled to exactly no representation of the party of their choice in Ottawa.

The First Past the Post voting system works best in a two-party system - that's what it was designed for. And it was designed at a time when every candidate for election was white and male and British. Canadians have evolved beyond just two parties - when will we move past First Past the Post?

3. First Past the Post rewards 40% support with absolute power. We know the axium "absolute power corrupts absolutely" - so why do we keep giving absolute power to parties that didn't even earn a majority of our votes? The last time a government in Ontario won over 50% of the popular vote was in the 1930s. Recently, Bob Rae's NDP in 1990 won 37.6% and took 74 of 130 seats in the Legislature - a clear majority ofseats. In 1995, Mike Harris took 44.8% of votes and was rewarded with 82 of 130 seats - giving him absolute power. Dalton McGuinty's Liberals won 46.4%in the last election and took 72 of 103 seats... you get the idea. Ineach case, a party for which most people didn't vote was given free reign to spend, slash or break their promises as they saw fit. Isn't there a better way?

To be continued...

Perhaps you've seen me on Supreme Master Television

You can see me talk about the Toronto Vegetarian Association and our Annual Vegetarian Food Fair about one third of the way through this video (and then it goes on after a brief message)...

Click here

Red Rover! Red Rover! We call Stephane over!

Sometimes calling by-elections is like playing Red Rover.

When Stephen Harper called the three Quebec by-elections that took place earlier this week, there were additional vacancies in four other electoral districts. That is to say, Stephen Harper could have called four more by-elections at the same time (he must do so within 6 months of these four seats falling vacant).

Two of the other vacancies were in Toronto, where the Liberals plan to run star candidates Martha Hall Findley and Bob Rae in two safe Liberal ridings. The other two are Vancouver Quadra BC - another solid Liberal district - and Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River - a riding which has been held by each of the three major parties in the past ten years.

Stephen Harper's gamble was simple - call the Quebec by-elections and call Stephane Dion over to face long odds in Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot and Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean and an NDP dream candidate in the generally Liberal riding of Outremont.

In the rural areas, Dion's Liberals barely made an impact. In the third, NDP star Thomas Mulcair broke through Liberal ranks - ranks that are still working out whether or not they can trust each other to hold tight through the electoral challenges ahead.

Meanwhile, Harper's Conservative candidate for Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean found it easy to break through a soft spot in Bloc Quebecois support, and Duceppe struggled past intensified Conservative opposition in Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot.

Dion's big mistake in all this was not drawing attention to the other by-elections which Harper is putting off. Instead of running full-steam towards Outremont, perhaps the right move would have been to call Harper's bluff, smirk for the cameras and say "if you're so tough, why don't you call over my dream team?"

In politics appearance is everything. And in Red Rover, there's nothing more satisfying than when your side makes an unexpected breakthrough. Except perhaps the satisfaction of watching your opponent struggle against the unbreakable bonds of well-prepared comrades in arms.

Ontario's Liberal Government - making Ontario slightly less difficult...

This election ad by the Liberal Party of Ontario seems to indicate that Liberals will run on their record - making things slightly less difficult for people than they were four years ago when the Black cats still roamed the halls of power (yes, I am invoking Mouseland).

The election will be held on October 10th.  I'm voting for the NDP.

technorati tags:election, ontario, campaign, ndp, mouseland, liberal

Equal and Opposite

Someone smarter than me once said that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Rubber Baron

The great thing about Michael Ignatieff isn't just the irony.

A couple weeks ago, the Liberal Party deputy leader stepped to the plate to attack the Harper government for handing over detainees captured by the Canadian military in Afghanistan to the authroities there who, wait for it, are alleged to have beaten, starved, whipped and frozen after being deposited with Afghan security forces.

But wait, here's the rebuttal from the Conservative Party website, quoting some Harvard-educated academic named Michael Ignatieff.

“To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils: indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.” (Edmonton Journal, May 9, 2004)

Good one. (I believe Stephen Harper also used this in Question Period)

Meanwhile, The Star's Linda Diebel has written a book. It's called Stéphane Dion: Against the Current. Anyhow, a section appeared this weekend (Toronto Star, May 12, 2007) which reported that Ignatieff turned down the position of Liberal Party policy chair for the more, let's say, opportune chance to sit in Question Period as the deputy leader.

According to Diebel, "Scuttlebutt grew that Ignatieff was using the deputy leader's position to build his own empire and steal Dion's job." (It's a great article, and I'm choosing to go with this hypothesis, although you should probably read it yourself if these kinds of things interest you.)

Cast in this light, it looks like Ignatieff is using the deputy leader position to bury some of his old, less popular positions so that when the time comes, he's more palatable to voters.

It seems that Ignatieff is hoping that he's made of rubber, not glue.

Today he takes Gilles Duceppe to task for "opportunism."

"I took part in a leadership contest that lasted eight months. He took part in a leadership contest that lasted 24 hours," said Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff (Etobicoke Lakeshore).

He refused to acknowledge any nobility in Duceppe's admission of error. Instead, Ignatieff said he saw political "opportunism."

"You go into these things and you should go in with both feet and fight through to the end, and he didn't," he said. (Toronto Star, May 15, 2007)

Another classy attack by the Liberal Party's very own Rubber Baron.

News from the Toronto Vegetarian Association

Summer Jobs with the Toronto Vegetarian Association

The Toronto Vegetarian Association is currently hiring for three summer student positions. We are looking for a Festival & Directory Assistant, a Research Assistant and a Community Outreach Assistant.

Applicants must be vegetarian and meet Canada Summer Jobs program requirements. For more details, please visit Veg.ca - Jobs.

Tofu Haiku contest in it's last week

There's just one week left until the close of the Tofu Haiku poetry contest. Visit tofuhaiku.com for more details.

I'm a Development Coordinator

For those of you who aren't reading my blog for the press release-style promotion of projects that I'm involved in, and instead want to know what's going on in my life, I recently got a promotion to become TVA's Development Coordinator. It's a sweet gig; I've really enjoyed working with TVA so far and I'm loving life in Toronto.

Any questions?

Mixed Member Proportional is a better way

1. With MMP, every vote counts. Under MMP each voter has the opportunity to select the party and the local candidate of their choice. 90 members would be elected the same way they are now - using first past the post to represent local ridings. An additional 29 seats are allocated to even out the discrepency between the percentage of the vote each party receives and their proportion of seats in the legislature.

For example, if the Green Party failed to win any local ridings, they would receive a number of the 29 extra seats such that that the percentage of seats they have in the legislature equals the percentage of the votes they've received. Parties which would typically be overrepresented under First Past the Post would receive fewer or possibly none of the extra 29 seats. In this way, every vote affects the outcome of the election.

2. With MMP, parties get the number of seats they deserve. Under MMP, if a party received 10% of the vote, they'll receive 10% of the seats (not 0) and if they receive 40% of the vote, they'll receive 40% of the seats (not 60%). This is accomplished through the allocation of the 29 extra seats to candidates from Party Lists.

Candidates on Party Lists stand for election just like other members - effectively, when voters cast their Party vote, they are endorsing that party's list. Another advantage of List Candidates is that when they're elected they can look out for the whole province, rather than just one local area. Most importantly - the List mechanism ensures that each party is represented proportionally.

3. With MMP, there will be no more false majorities. Because a Mixed Member Proportional electoral system will result in more accurate representation in the legislature, political parties will no longer be able to govern as though they have a majority unless they have actually earned one. This will effectively mean that in order to govern, parties will have to work together and find common ground.

Unlike the minority governments that we're used to, MMP minority governments are actually quite stable in most jurisdictions - fixed election dates are the rule because parties are not busy jockeying for a shot at a (false) majority government. It is worth noting that many of Canada's great reforms took place during minority governments.