Posted by Ron Gray on 5/20/2005, 11:02 am, in reply to "Re: Funny Member." In 1990, I had the exquisite experience of losing a provincial nomination by exactly one vote; afterwards, at least 30 people told me, “Gee, Ron, I wish I’d been there. My vote would have made a difference.” What could I say? “Yes, it sure would have.” May 19 at Ottawa, we saw once again the power of a single vote, when Chuck Cadman, the former Alliance MP who had the nomination wrested from him, but who won the seat as an Independent, kept the Martin government alive. What a difference a single MP can sometimes make! There are many urban myths about the power of a single vote—mostly untrue*—but the point is nevertheless valid: one vote can sometimes make a big difference. It would only have taken a few votes to defeat the iniquitous Bill C-250, Svend Robinson’s pampered legislation to criminalize dissent from the myth that homosexuality is benign. It would only have taken a few votes to stop Bill C-38—the legalization of same-sex “marriage”—from passing Second Reading. The Christian Heritage Party may be small—it only contested one seat in five in the last federal election—but if the pro-life, pro-family voters in just a few of those ridings had realized that their hopes were wasted on the Conservative Party (as they had earlier been wasted on the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance—what did they ever achieve for the pro-moral cause?) and had risked their vote on the solidly pro-moral CHP… those “few votes” might have been in Parliament when they were needed. The pro-moral forces in Canada have to face the fact that the Conservative Party, in spite of a few stellar exceptions, takes Christians for granted, but does not represent them. That movement has postured for years as “semi-Christian”, but there’s really no such thing. Stephen Harper, commenting on the Stronach defection, tried again to be all things to all people, noting that his “big tent” party embraces, among other categories “all sexual orientations”. That ill-defined phrase is the politically-correct replacement for the more accurate term “sexual preference”. It is NOT on the same category as race, religion or gender. It doe NOT deserve the preferential treatment it gets in the four parties now in the House. Canada desperately needs a voice in Parliament that is willing to make that statement, and back it with facts. That voice is the Christian Heritage Party. A single CHP Member of Parliament—or a small caucus of them—can serve Canada as the conscience of Parliament… but only if Canadian Christians will rally to elect them. ======================================================== * According to http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/onevote.htm: “To impress upon readers the importance of casting their votes, lists circulate that perpetuate a variety of ‘one vote’ canards; e.g.; * In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England. * In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be executed. * In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of German. * In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the United States. * In 1875, one vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic. * In 1923, one vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi Party. * In 1941, one vote saved Selective Service—just weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked. All the above claims are false.” However, some other one-vote stories are true: * President Andrew Johnson retained his office by one vote. The final tally against him was 35 to 19, but a two-thirds majority of the votes cast was needed to oust him from office, thus a 36-to-18 result was required. * In 1839, Marcus "Landslide" Morton was elected governor of Massachusetts by one vote. Of the 102,066 votes cast by the good people of that state, he received exactly 51,034. Had his count been 51,033, the election would have been thrown into the Legislature, where he probably would not have won. "Landslide" also made the record books in 1842 when he won the same office again by one vote, this time in the Legislature. (In those days, Massachusetts governors were elected for terms of one year.) * Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President in 1876 by one vote. Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote by a quarter million votes and came up one electoral vote shy of a majority because twenty electoral votes were under dispute. A Congressionally-appointed commission composed of eight Republicans and seven Democrats voted along party lines, awarding all twenty of those disputed votes to Hayes. * In 1941, the active-service component of the Selective Service Act of 1940 was extended by a margin of one vote, 203 to 202. The original act provided that a drafted man should serve for one year and then spend ten years in the reserves, subject to call-up in case of war. The amendment lengthened every draftee's service from one year to two-and-a-half years. This close vote didn't save Selective Service from being axed; what was voted on was how long a draftee would have to serve if called up. No one knows where the "just weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked" element enters into things. The vote was held in August 1941, four months before Pearl Harbor.
The power of a single vote
Ron Gray
Message Thread:
« Back to thread