My condolences as well to my friends south of the border. We are presently having a Canadian election which is every bit as silly as the one you have just completed...just doesn't last one tenth as long. It will be over in a short time from now, and little, if anything, will really change, except that the rich will probably get richer, and there will be a few more homeless on the streets of Toronto and other cities...regardless of who wins it.

Someone said "Democracy doesn't work!" Well, of course not! Not the phony excuse for democracy that we have at present, because it ISN'T REAL DEMOCRACY AT ALL.

It would be better to ban all political parties and simply have individuals run for election on their own personal merits as human beings. Those individuals could be funded from a pool of public money, rather than from private (read: corporate) funding. Each individual, up to a maximum of 5 candidates per riding, would receive EXACTLY the same amount of money to run his campaign. The campaign would be limited to 40 days maximum. The individual receiving the most votes would win that riding. The winners of the ridings would form state committees of a non-partisan sort. The state committees would elect from their membership a national committee, after a period of holding discussions. The national committee would elect from its membership a federal committee, which would appoint a cabinet and a chief executive.

The PUBLIC would have the right to vote any member of that government out of office at any time...by a 66% vote of dissaproval. This would make those in government think twice about abusing their privileges.

Now think about it. Eliminate political parties, eliminate your ridiculous electoral college, eliminate BIG MONEY behind the scenes, and you have eliminated all the graft, corruption, and divisiveness of your present system.

Your present system CANNOT work. It is not democracy, no matter who wins your election...because the RICH and only the rich control and run your present system. And they distract you by dividing your attention between the Republicans and the Democrats and putting you at each others' throats...until the day after election...and then they cynically tell you it's time to "heal the wounds and unite the country". What utter bullshit. Democracy indeed!

By the way, I looked outside this morning, and the world is still beautiful, thankfully.

- LH