Lack of Political Knowledge Weakens Our Democracy – Cape Breton Post

June 22, 2016

Oh Canada, we love you but we hardly know you

Next week July 1, is Canada’s 149th birthday. Time to take stock of who we are and where we might be going. Problem is how little we know about ourselves, our history and our politics.

Many of us would not do well on Canada’s citizenship test. Actually, many would fail it. Surveys conducted by Ipsos Reid, the Dominion Institute and other pollsters have captured the embarrassing pockets of our ignorance about Canada and its people.

As pointed out in my previous column (June 1) we are still not clear about our First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) electoral system. And we will need much tutoring if we abandon FPTP and adopt some version of proportional representation (PR) to elect our governments.

Read More: http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/2016-06-22/article-4565488/Lack-of-Political-Knowledge-Weakens-Our-Democracy/1