The Harper government is facing allegations of illegal activity regarding their campaign financing for the election of 2006, when the Conservative initially took power.  The allegations are that they exceeded the campaign spending limit by more than $ 1 million and enabled 67 individual candidates to receive 60% refunds from the public on campaign spending they did not incur.  The Conservative Party is referring to it as an administrative mistake while Ignatieff is referring to it as “criminal charges”.  The reality of it is that it is illegal but since it is not in the Criminal Code, it is not criminal.  These allegations come at a time when it is believed that an election is just around the corner.  As seen in one of my previous blogs, the Conservative Party is predicted to be 4 seats shy of a majority government.  However, with this recent news having come out, it may turn out to hurt the Conservative Party in the election.  If these allegations are true then the Conservatives will likely lose a number of supporters given the public’s general disapproval of corruption and illegal activities from the government.  If these allegations do end up hurting the Conservatives in the election, I think it would be a shame.  I think the Conservatives have handled the economic downturn quite well since being in power and have limited their mistakes for the most part.  Not to say that the Liberals or NDP would have done poorly but in times of economic hardship, I personally think that an economist, like Stephen Harper, should be Prime Minister and focus on fixing the economy primarily and put other issues on the back burner, so to speak.  For more information on the allegations against the Conservative Party, go to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tory-election-allegations-illegal-not-administrative-prosecutor-says/article1924161/.  

The sit-in that has been taking place in the Wisconsin State Capitol for the past two weeks is showing no signs of stopping any time soon.  The protesters are opposing a legislation put forth by Republican Governor Scott Walker to eliminate the power of unions to collectively bargain.  This is Walker’s way of balancing the budget of Wisconsin which is important given the economic troubles that are facing the United States as a whole.  Walker says he is taking action on the problem that previous governors and legislators have passed along and that it is time that someone stood up and took care of the issue of government debt in Wisconsin.  Even with the sit-in, Governor Walker says he will not budge from his position.  Whether he sticks to this statement and actually refuses to compromise remains to be seen.  The protesters seem to have captured the attention of the media and the politicians.  This is evidence of the effectiveness of protesting in implementing change, or in this case preventing it.  I don’t think that other forms of political participation would have been nearly as effective.  For starters, voting would be ineffective because Scott Walker assumed office on January 3 of this year which means that despite these proposals to strip unions of their collective bargaining ability, he still likely has the majority of the public supporting him.  With voting off the table, direct contacting is the only other option before protesting.  In this situation, direct contacting would probably not be effective given that if he is not backing down with all of the media attention and protestors, he is even less likely to back down to one person calling in.  I think that even though Governor Walker has stated that he will not budge from his position, eventually the media pressure, the pressure from the Democrats and the protestors will force him to compromise with the union heads and ease up on his legislation.

                On February 18, the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy, known as LISPOP, released their seat projection if there were an election held.  Their findings predicted the Conservative party winning 151 seats, which is 4 short of a majority, the Liberals winning 73 seats, the NDP winning 31 seats and the Bloc winning 53 seats.  Projections such as this are useful when observing Canadian politics because it provides an estimation of the political ideologies that are dominant in Canada at a given time.  However, while showing how Canadians are likely to vote, projections like this may also shape how Canadians vote.  Given that the Conservative party is projected to win a few seats under a majority, undecided voters may cast their votes differently with this information.  If they are in favour of majority governments but were going to vote for the NDP or Liberal, they might change their vote to Conservative in an attempt to give them the majority.  On the other hand, if they do not want a Harper majority but would have voted Conservative, they may vote for the Liberals in an attempt to prevent a Conservative majority government.  Ultimately, whatever someone chooses to take away from a seat projection, they are helpful in explaining the outcomes of election and provide the parties with an idea of what to expect in a coming election.

Egypt is said to be holding referendums regarding constitutional reform.  This comes after almost 30 years of an autocratic regime lead by President Hosni Mubarak.  Following the referendum, there will be elections for the upper and lower house.  The reforms would make it easier for people to run for president, whereas before it was next to impossible for anyone outside of the ruling party to run, and also limit the amount of terms a president can serve and the length of these terms.  With the reform, presidents will be limited to two four year terms.  This will allow for more democratic political institutions in Egypt allowing people to vote for whomever they want and making it so that the president cannot stay in power too long and become corrupt.  I think that this is a major step for democracy in the Middle East because the people of the other Middle Eastern countries will see how the democratic institutions work in Egypt and will demand it from their governments.  The one problem with how Egypt is handling the election is that they are holding it too quickly.  The only parties that have the resources to mount an election campaign is the National Democratic Party, formerly Mubarak’s party, and the Muslim Brotherhood, who have stated that they are not interested in pursuing a majority in Parliament or the Presidency.  Seeing as the other opposition parties do not have the resources to campaign for the election, the democratic aspect of the election is limited.  Even though any party can get votes, the only ones with enough resources to campaign for their platforms is the one that formed the autocratic government and one that has no interest in leading.  Egypt would be better off waiting a while longer to ensure that enough opposing parties are able to run successful campaigns because it would allow the voters to pick the party that best fits their ideology because they would actually know about the parties.  

Political Ideology and Bias

Political ideology is a key component of politics and observing political behaviour. There are political ideology quizzes all over the internet that help people figure out where they fall on the political spectrum when looking at many different issues. One quiz in particular is found at http://www.politicalcompass.org/index. This is the quiz that I often send my friends to if they don’t know what their ideology is. This is because it goes beyond the simple left-right wing ideologies but also the libertarian-authoritarian ideologies placing you on a vertical and horizontal axis. However, upon viewing it more closely I found that, like most other things, this quiz is very biased. This quiz in particular has a somewhat left leaning bias which ultimately places people more left than they should be. An example of a left leaning question is the very first one which says “If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations” to which one can answer strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree. The wording of this question favours the left wing response of the economy should favour humanity because it makes the right wing response seem inhumane. Having such a bias in the political ideology quiz is dangerous because it skews what people actually believe and could change how someone acts politically. If someone who does not know much about politics takes that quiz and actually has similar views to the Conservative Party but the quiz places their views with the Liberal Party, the person is likely to vote Liberal in the election which, if done enough, could alter the outcome of the election.