Also, the fact that like most democratic nations, voting is compulsory (a fact I know the Yanks find hard to fathom), teaching our students from an early age about how our political system works is given much higher priority, thus creating a much more informed public.

Originally Posted by PetuniaRose

kaninelupus said:

This almost seems as though it might be worth a try, on the grounds of the ends justifying the means - unfortunately, since we don't seem to be able to teach our students how to even add and subtract at the moment, I wouldn't put money on the chance of success in teaching them about something as (relatively) complex as a political system ...

Also, the fact that like most democratic nations, voting is compulsory (a fact I know the Yanks find hard to fathom)

Originally Posted by Ancient Dragon

Yes, nearly 100% of the citizens of Iraq voted and Saddam Hussein won 100% of those votes during the "election". But I would not have called that a democracy. Dictatorships are sometime disguised as democracies.

Originally Posted by shadwickman

But kaninelupus said that in reference to Australia, not a country that whose government enforces single-party rule. The context of that quote makes all the difference...

But I see the point you're trying to make. I know that enforcing voting as mandatory restricts the rights of those who purposefully choose not to vote as an action of disfavour with the current politics. Yet, by not making voting mandatory, a new group is created - those people who don't vote only because they can't be bothered to. Sadly, in countries like America and Canada, this group makes up a large portion of the population, so that the voter turnout can be only ~60% on average. The problem raised by this is that only a slim majority of the country took action in choosing their "representative", and only a majority of those who turned out chose that particular representative over the opposition. This results in very skewed and disproportionate representation, and if the country uses a system like PR, rather than first-past-the-post, much more often the winner of the vote does not actually even hold a majority of the votes from those who voted - an even slimmer portion of the population deciding on the representative of the whole nation.

Originally Posted by Hiroshe

The Ontario high school curriculum recently got a new mandatory course: Gr. 10 Civics. It was the first smart move I've seen the school board make in a long time. Basicly, it teaches students about government system's, politics, and how to make informed decisions.

Originally Posted by Aia

kaninelupus> "Epic failure"?? Because I could actually construct a well thought out dialogue as to why I disagreed with you??
No. It is because you have removed all possible doubts that you don't know what you are talking about.

This coming from someone with the all the IQ of a brick! All you've done with your name-calling and blatant antagonism is show the entire site what a true w@nker you really are... and that's on top of being another annoying Yank (I cheered on 9 11) - kaninelupus