Friday, October 05, 2007

Vote for MMP!!! The "Checking Facebook to make me feel better about the future" Edition!

So, with recent polls suggesting MMP will not pass in the upcoming Referendum, I decided to go check out the two official Facebook campaign groups for the Referendum on the premise that it would make me feel better because Facebook skews young, and therefore is probably more reflective of attitudes in the future towards electoral reform.

Right now, the Vote for MMP Facebook Group has 3695 members.
The No MMP Ontario Facebook Group has 826 members.

So, in the universe of Facebook, it's MMP 82% and FPTP 18%.

Under FPTP rules, that's MMP 100%, FPTP 0%.

Sigh.

It's nice to know the future's with me, but it still didn't make me feel much better.

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7 comments:

Thor said...

For an even headier optimistic poll, check the poll on my blog - currently 71% are voting for MMP, 15% against, 4% undecided and 7% said "what is MMP?"

Lord Kitchener's Own said...

Nice!

I also always like being on the side of the young and highly educated in polls, and not the old and undereducated.

Of course, that won't necessarily cure the sting of a loss though!

Anonymous said...

See, it's comments like that that make the yes side come across as arrogant. Because you don't support MMP you're old and undereducated? Believe it or not it's possible to read both sides of the argument and come to a conclusion that differs from yours.

I'll even go you one further - I'll propose that since MMP is soooo much better, and so clearly better that it should be an easy sell. It should be such an easy sell that the default position for anybody who gets even just a passing description of it will be in favour of it. It's sooo much better and so clearly better that the only way you could possibly come to the conclusion that FPTP is better is to EDUCATE yourself and see the warts. Therefore FPTP supporters must be the more educated of the two groups. :)

Thor said...

It's not an issue of being an easy sell. It's an issue of getting the correct information to all voters. And the government and Elections Ontario are doing that job, and over half the MSM is lying about MMP to people... If we could get the truth out to everyone, it would win by a landslide. But, we are just a few bloggers against great odds.

Thor said...

Sorry, I meant the government and Elections Ontario are NOT doing that job.

Lord Kitchener's Own said...

Anonymous,

No, I wasn't saying that at all. I was simply pointing out that polls show that the younger you are, the more likely you are to favour MMP, and the better educated you are, the more likely you are to favour MMP. That's just a fact. Stating a fact is not arrogant, it's just stating a fact. (I've also often said, "A sense of superiority is only arrogance if you're not superior" - OK, maybe THAT's arrogant...).

Now, as for the easy sell, broccoli is better for you than ice cream, but it doesn't necessarily follow that broccoli is an easy sell. Doing nothing is always an easier sell than doing something. It's inertia (and may I say, as I've said before "damn you laws of thermodynamics!").

However, I can understand if you are either to old, or too little educated to understand that anonymous. :-)

And Thor's totally right. I wouldn't be so frustrated if anti-MMP campaigners weren't spreading lies all over the province, including in major newspaper editorials (you seem to have the truth down not too badly anon, if you're the same anon from my last few posts, but you're the exception, not the rule). It would be a much easier sell if people were being told the truth, but sadly, as we all know, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. On the merits, MMP IS clearly superior to FPTP. If you listen to the spin though, it's not necessarily easy to see that.

Anonymous said...

I assume the 'lies' you're talking about are the "appointed" list memebers, which you counter are "democratically elected". You should wander over to www.m-w.com (merriam-webster dictionary online), do a search for 'appointed' and for 'democratic' and tell me which of those statements is more accurate with regards to the MMP party lists (hint: election is just one way someone can be appointed to a post), nevermind the issues with list order after the content has been determined.