March 26, 2007

 

Nobody calls Soundwave unchrasimatic


This is the greatest YouTube video that could possibly be created.



I don't see how anyone wouldn't vote for Soundwave, considering that his puny flesh-creature opponent can't even pronounce "energon".

Beyond all the work that must have gone into creating that costume, I noticed that the person behind it also included obscure details like how long Soundwave has been Decepticon Communications Officer. Kudos!

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March 25, 2007

 

Liberals try to crush freedom of the press


Hey, that's what the headline would be like if the Conservatives were doing this.

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March 14, 2007

 

Guess who's getting ripped off?


The 2006 census results have been released.

During the 2004 federal election, I put together an Excel chart comparing the population of each province (based on the 2001 census) with how many seats they have in the House of Commons. I've updated it to reflect the new data; you can download the file here.

Here's some of the highlights. First off, we have each province's percentage of the total 2006 population, percentage of the current HoC ridings, and the difference between the two (a negative percentage means that province has fewer seats than its population warrants; a positive one means it has more).
    Population   Ridings   Difference
AB 10.41% 9.09% -12.7%
ON 38.47% 34.42% -10.5%
BC 13.01% 11.69% -10.2%
QC 23.87% 24.35% 2.0%
NS 2.89% 3.57% 23.6%
MB 3.63% 4.55% 25.1%
NB 2.31% 3.25% 40.6%
NL 1.60% 2.27% 42.1%
SK 3.06% 4.55% 48.4%
NT 0.13% 0.32% 147.5%
PE 0.43% 1.30% 202.2%
YU 0.10% 0.32% 237.9%
NU 0.09% 0.32% 248.2%
Now, based on the above data, here's how many seats each province should have in an ideal Parliament of the same overall size. I've included both the 2001 and 2006 results; the latter includes how many seats they'd gain or lose.
       Actual   2001   2006 (Diff)
AB 28 31 32 (+4)
ON 106 117 118 (+12)
BC 36 40 40 (+4)
QC 75 74 74 (-1)
NS 11 9 9 (-2)
MB 14 11 11 (-3)
NB 10 7 7 (-3)
NL 7 5 5 (-2)
SK 14 10 9 (-5)
NT 1 1 1 (N/C)
PE 4 1 1 (-3)
YU 1 1 1 (N/C)
NU 1 1 1 (N/C)
Total 308 308 309
(Note that technically, the territories would only warrant one seat between all three of them, although I've listed them here with one each.)

Based on this data, we can see that Alberta is the worst off when it comes to getting its fair share of representation, with almost 13% fewer seats than it should have. Ontario and B.C. are close behind, with just over 10% less. (In the 2001 data, B.C. was the worst off, with Alberta in third.) Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Atlantic provinces are all over-represented to varying degrees; it's interesting to note that P.E.I. is worse than the Northwest Territories. I had always assumed that Quebec was considerably over-represented, but it turns out that it has almost exactly the right amount, with only one extra seat.

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