[Nuitari]

BDO has offices in Winnipeg and other cities of MB, we could always ask them

[Nuitari]

If we can get registered before a general election, then we need to jump on the opportunity, even if we don't do much campaigning that time.

This will allow us to do the tax receipts which will allow us to collect more contributions.
It will also give a change of being on /. again.

[Mikkel Paulson]

Contesting our first election will put us on Slashdot. Contesting our second election will not. I'd rather grab headlines when we're running multiple candidates in a general election.

[Nuitari]

If we were to have a full slate on an election, it would get us in the spotlight

[Mikkel Paulson]

Building rocket packs and going to the moon would also get us some wonderful media attention.

[Jay Frank]

I um...

Happen to have a number of internet spaceships that you could use.

J

www.eve-online.com

[Thom Corbett]

I think that we should focus our efforts around the notion of 'Campaign Readiness'.

There is an old chestnut that 'all politics is local'. I believe that to be true. People will vote based on what is important to them. We need to get some practice in showing how our core issues relate directly to people where they live. We need to learn how to persuade people. We also need some practice and education ourselves. We have to build a representative platform that deals with the most pressing issues that concern local voters. Although our 'core' issues are important, they will not decide an election. To get our issues into the public debate, we need to be ready willing and able to debate the other issues as well.

You have hit the nail on the head, regarding  "all politics is local." And there are so many issues that too often the media play as national, that are in fact local. For instance, the pensions of so many people nearing retirement age have gone into meltdown, except for the pensions of MPs. If you haven't looked into the amount of money the MPs get in pensions, do a search. It is obscene. And when you point it out to other people, it ticks them off too.

What about the high rate of taxation for individuals vs. the low tax rate for corporations?

Or the cost of "protecting" world leaders at the G20? In a campaign you could calculated the number of voters in a town where an all candidate meeting is being held. In my area, I would look at a large town (by Nova Scotian standards) of 5,000 people. So, $1 billion divided by 5,000 people = $200,000 per person. How many years would they have to work to pay those taxes?

Now, I'm getting ticked. Come on someone, surely my math is wrong?

And you could take this approach to a multitude of issues.

[Nuitari]

For instance, the pensions of so many people nearing retirement age have gone into meltdown, except for the pensions of MPs. If you haven't looked into the amount of money the MPs get in pensions, do a search. It is obscene. And when you point it out to other people, it ticks them off too.

It ticks me off, and I'm not even near the age of retirement.

What about the high rate of taxation for individuals vs. the low tax rate for corporations?

Not much of a problem IMHO. For most people, the corporation is paying their taxes on their behalf through the source deductions. Dividends end up being taxed too, usually at a similar rate. The tax paid by corporations isn't that high because the extra money can be easily used for expansion and to hire more workers.

Or the cost of "protecting" world leaders at the G20? In a campaign you could calculated the number of voters in a town where an all candidate meeting is being held. In my area, I would look at a large town (by Nova Scotian standards) of 5,000 people. So, $1 billion divided by 5,000 people = $200,000 per person. How many years would they have to work to pay those taxes?

That meeting and its security measure was disproportionate compared to the actual results of it. They should hold these meetings in facilities that already have the security available.

[Concerned Citizen]

Or the cost of "protecting" world leaders at the G20? In a campaign you could calculated the number of voters in a town where an all candidate meeting is being held. In my area, I would look at a large town (by Nova Scotian standards) of 5,000 people. So, $1 billion divided by 5,000 people = $200,000 per person. How many years would they have to work to pay those taxes?

Now, I'm getting ticked. Come on someone, surely my math is wrong?

And you could take this approach to a multitude of issues.

Your math is wrong. It's $x Billions/(Population of Canada) and not just 5,000 people in Nova Scotia. I'll say 2 billion is a good number... so about $300.20 to be paid by every single man, woman and child in Canada. Then again if they did hold it in some hickville area far from the major population centers of Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver the level of security required would probably drop significantly due to less people being around to protest.

[btrower]

Thom: I like the idea of relating this directly back to voters. I also like the idea of doing calculations as to what things cost.

I wonder about the use of numbers here. I think $2B may be closer to the mark, but the cost attributed in the media is about $1B. When I am doing arithmetic like this in my head, I manipulate the numbers thus:

$1B = 1,000 million
Population of Canada (to make the arithmetic simple) = 25 million

1000/25 = 4000/100 = = 400/10 = $40

Looking at it another way, there are (very roughly) about 10 million households in Canada. 1000/10 = 100 -- about $100 per household. This is not quite as dramatic as $300 per person and not nearly as dramatic as $200K, but it is more genuine. Also, even though $100 bucks might not sound that dramatic, if you took a poll of Canadians and asked them if they would personally pony up a hundred bucks for the G20 summit they would likely take a pass. I would.

I think we should make a practice of tracking expenses and relating them back to households. I do not quibble with many particular expenses (yet), but I am near certain that if we tally up all the costs of stuff about which we have some choice, most Canadians would be appalled and demand some cuts.

Nuitari -- Re: They should hold these meetings in facilities that already have the security available.

This is the kind of *brilliant* common sense that I think we should concentrate on bringing to the table. I never even thought about it, but Toronto is possibly the dumbest location they could have picked for that meeting. What were they thinking? I *so* want my hundred bucks back.