Spaw - Whaddya mean, you can't afford more than 2 parties? Canada has always (in my lifetime) had at least 3, if not more parties, and we spend proportionately way less than you do on elections...mainly because our elections are only allowed by law to run for 6 weeks!!! I've gotta accuse you of lazy thinking on this one. BTW, it's a whole lot more fun with 3 or more parties...sometimes you get a "minority" government in power, and they usually pass better, more balanced legislation than majority governemnts, because they are forced to seek compromises.

Everybody - There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why we should have ANY political parties. Civic elections are done without parties, and it would be entirely possible to do national elections without them as well.

Parties are like unions, churches, and other such organizations...they seek to accumulate wealth and power, and they generally become corrupted in the process.

Why not just vote for individual people? That's what the Romans and Greeks did, as far as I recall, and they had democracy, until Julius Caesar took over.

Matt - WAKE UP!!! Time for breakfast.

- LH