We don't have a democracy or a free press

So says Green Party candidate Jack Etkin. Is it any wonder that so few people take the Green Party seriously, resulting in a 1.2 per cent share of funding amongst the federal parties?

Not getting that many votes doesn't necessarily mean our democracy is broken. It just means your particular message hasn't caught on with the electorate. Same goes for freedom of the press.

When your biggest media coverage of the year comes from a candidate who gets exiled from the Green Party for seeming to admire the work of the 9/11 terrorists, a lack of press freedom might not be the underlying cause of your difficulties.

It's a joke, and a not very funny one at that. On the west coast, in the birthplace of Greenpeace, the Greens ought to be a major political contender, or at the very least, a kingmaker. Climate change and environmental issues are now top of the agenda in many voters' minds, as they should be.

The Greens need to find a way to become relevant to the average voter without whining that the rules are stacked against them.

The Ultimate Fighting Champions of Democracy

The latest parliamentary fracas in Taiwan just goes to show there are, um, differing approaches to democracy in the free world.

Some days, I wish the House of Commons was more like this... just for a moment. Then I realize that the Bloc Quebecois probably has enough MPs to lay the smack down on all the other parties and demand a separate state with the business end of a table leg.

Stephen Harper's brain taken over by Liberal mind-control scientists

The Conservative government is so panicked it's copying Liberal ideas and policies, according to Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

Wait a minute - Liberals are accusing the governing party of co-opting the more reasonable platform planks of the opposition to make Canadians happy and help the country run better, without regard to blind partisan politics... and this is a bad thing?

It is the duty of the opposition to oppose. But the party that is actually running the country has a duty to consider ideas from Canadians of all political stripes when forming policy and legislation. That isn't a political ploy - that's democracy in action.