Independentcandidates.ca

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/11/ndpwatch-why-so-suddenly-concerned-about-floor-crossing-official-opposition.html

• November 2, 2011 11:21 AM | Read 27 comments27
• By Kady O’Malley

Note: The following meanderings originally appeared on twitter, but have been tweaked, extended and edited for readability.

Enthusiastic party press releases to the contrary, the next NDP-backed private members’ bill headed for the floor of the House does not, in fact, “ban” floor crossing outright, but would trigger an automatic byelection when an MP “becomes a member of a registered party” that did not endorse his or her candidacy in the election. Read more…

This is truly remarkable. Note the jutification.

There is a “love hate” relationship with policital parties. There are many who “hate” the fact that party MPs  or MPPs are loyal to the parties and not to their  consituents.  On the other  hand, there are many who  see Independent Candidates has having a harder time winning elections.

We are now  seeing “parties of independent candidates”. For example, in Ontario, in the October 2011 election, Onarians were introduced to the Canadians Choice Party – a party of Independent Candidates.  In Quebec,  the CAQ is  a  party (at least according to the following article) formed largely  from Independent Candidates.

See the following article:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1085378–a-powerful-new-party-rises-in-quebec

In June, he dumped the Parti Québécois, for which he acted as the immigration critic and is sitting as an independent for the riding of Deux Montagnes, northwest of Montreal. But over the summer, he said, he found himself more and more captivated by the new Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec.

“I find it interesting, and I think many Quebecers are on the same page,” Charette said. “For the first time in 40 years we are proposing to bring people together on a base different from the national question. It’s refreshing.”

Come the next legislative session early in 2012, he and a handful of other independents and members of the rightist party Action démocratique du Québec, could become members of the CAQ. Read more…

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/its-the-end-of-the-political-party-as-we-know-it-and-i-feel-fine/article2201934/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/democratic-reform-should-be-the-central-issue-of-this-election/article1982405/

We are now well into one of our occasionally scheduled games of “futures markets in stolen property,” otherwise known as an election. (Thank you, H.L. Mencken.) The promises are flying.

Stripped of all the fine words, the parties all come to us with a remarkable proposition: “We will confiscate a goodly portion of your hard-earned money and remove it to Ottawa. There we will launder and shrink it and then return some of it to you. We will also issue a series of orders called laws and regulations that will tell you what to do with your lives. You may now say thank you.” Read more…

Nominations for the General Election have closed with 233 Independent and smaller party candidates standing; FF has 75 candidates, FG 104, Labour 68, Greens 43 and Sinn Féin 41.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0209/politics.html

A total of 564 candidates will be contesting the General Election – nearly a hundred more than in the last general election in 2007.

The number of those running as independents or for smaller parties is 233 – this compares to 108 in 2007. Read more…

As you know the next Canadian Federal Election is May 2, 2011. We have been questions about how to run as an independent. What follows is the reply email we have been sending:

What follows are links to everything you need. But, you need to get started now – by that I mean that you must:

- get somebody to be your official agent

- find out who can be your auditor

I really encourage you to do this – but a much greater degree of organization is required for you than for party candidates. Read more…

by Rachel Rose Hartman

Credit the tea party, our election system or just plain ambition, but 2010 is fast becoming the year for established candidates to shun the two major political parties.

Write-in or third-party candidates look to significantly shake things up in several major statewide races Nov. 2 — and this week, yet another major candidate disclosed he may be adding his name to that list.

Republican Rep. Mike Castle said Wednesday that he “probably” would not wage a write-in candidacy for Delaware senator. But he also said he hasn’t ruled the option out; he’s pondering it, he said, “simply because it’s there, simply because I’ve had a number of people who’ve asked that I do that.” Castle, like Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, lost his Republican primary campaign to an insurgent tea party candidate, and is looking at a write-in effort like the one Murkowski announced last week as a way back into the 2010 political fray.

Below is a roundup of  some of the year’s most significant independent candidates — together with a look at their motivations and the odds that they’ll prevail on Election Day. Read more…