Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Recall is just a dumb idea. I once thought that I would be in favour of this until I realised a few issues. Most of the ridings are somewhat competitive and getting the requisite number of signatures isn't really that shocking (say you have a competitive riding where the first past the post results are 38% to 30% for the first two...the second place finisher will likely get enough signatures to recall the guy who just won!).
I also don't know about the Tories "daring" to support this. If that bill contains a 10% of the signatures kind of figure then maybe the WRA ought to be careful what they wish for...that is a really low number. (In California IIRC the figure is 12% of those who were eligible to vote in the previous election).
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I think the original plan by the Alliance was one third of the voting eligible population. Not sure what the bill they will submit will set as the threshold.
However, your reasoning is badly flawed. The second place finisher having 30% of the vote would not come close to having enough signatures for a recall for several reasons:
1. He was only supported by 30% of the 50% of the population that bothered to vote, not 30% of the overall population.
2. To assume that everyone who voted for that candidate would automatically support a recall is, in a word, stupid.
3. The time, cost and effort required to create, organize and pass a recall petition would be enormous. It would only pass if there was sufficient reason to do so.
4. If a losing candidate or one of their supporters started a recall petition simply for losing the election, they could not hope to get enough support to get it through. The average voter may be dumb, but he isn't so dumb as not to realize that that is just a very petty and selfish move.