STV in BC, levy on MP3

Daniel Girard has an informative, albeit oddly timed article on B.C.'s electoral reform situation. This is the kind of concise, informative, matter-of-fact information piece a long-winded, opinionated person like me could never pull off. The one thing he doesn't do (and realistically couldn't in the space of a column), is provide much information on how the electoral systems in question (the proposed [and far superior] Single Transferrrable Vote and the existing [outdated and undemocratic] First-Past-the-Post ) actually work.

For that, I recommend this , a flash animation put together by South Austalia's State Electoral Office, that explains it all and is entertaining enough in its own right to watch even if you're not trying to learn about electoral systems. Well, it's pretty cute at any rate.

One thing to note is that what the Aussie's refer to as Proportional Representation in the animation, we call Single Transferrable Vote, and what they call 'Exclusion (Bottom's Up)' is often referred to as Instant Runoff voting here.

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In other news, the Federal Appeal Court overturned the levy which was being charged on mp3 players (from what I understand it varied from $2 - $25 depending on the storage capacity of the device). The decision was based on a technicality so the levy could be restored if lawmakers get around to making the necessary changes to the law.

I really only brought this up so I could point out this great line,

London Drug's Mr. Powell said the fee is inappropriate for digital music players because they have uses beyond just music. For example, some new iPod models can also store photographs. "So why, when you put your family memories on an iPod device, should you be sending money to Céline Dion?"

Why indeed.