[EM] Responses to some of Forest's ideas

[Forest Simmons]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Blake Cretney wrote:

<snip>

> 
> In Canada the government requires cable companies to black out
> national and American television for the west, until polls close. 
> Last I heard, Elections Canada was pursuing a case against a westerner
> for posting early election results on a web page.
>

Very Interesting! It would be an impossible task to censor the entire
internet.
 
> One advantage to the west of the information would be to avoid wasted
> votes, and that might be part of what concerns the federal government.


>  A more significant advantage in the Canadian system would be to know
> who was going to win, and therefore vote for the governing party, in
> order to get the rewards of backing the winning side.

So politicians who thought their greatest support was coming from Alberta
and B.C. would funnel federal funds in that direction.

Interesting thought!

>  In reality,
> however, most westerners almost always vote against the government. 
> Rightly or wrongly, it is more important to westerners to signify
> their displeasure with the federal government than to get any extra
> federal money.

Proud descendants of those noble, sturdy pioneers :-)

> 
> ---
> Blake Cretney
> 
>