My disappointment in Ontarians weak election turn-out is waning, slightly. Well I think that there were many opportunities lost, at least the Green Party tripled it's percentage of the popular vote. Of course, it is not lost on me that this won them exactly zero seats in our provincial legislature and that had a multi-member proportional (MMP) system been in place, that 8% of the popular vote would have resulted in some actual representation. Yet MMP was soundly defeated. I felt like the attacks on that electoral model didn't hold water. It seemed that one of the main problems was that people didn't know what it was. Without an understanding of the options, people seem likely to avoid the unknown. Oh well. Hopefully the lessons learned from this referendum will ensure better education campaigns in the future (even if it doesn't mean a change in our electoral system).
In other news, a report on land requirements of various diets has determined that an entirely vegetarian diet may not be quite as efficient (production-wise) than one that is largely vegetarian but also includes some meat. The difference seems to be that meat can be produced using somewhat marginal and plentiful pasture-land while fruits, grains and vegetables require high-quality farmland. Interesting. Don't take my word for it though, read the article about it here.
1 comment:
Condolences on MMP not passing. I was rootin for it too!
The marginal-land-for-meat argument has a point. Much of the land in central BC is not too great for crops, but good for pasture & hay-growing. Too thin, hilly, and rocky; also short growing season. We got awesome veggies out of it with decades of compost & care, but limited variety.
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