Thursday, January 12, 2006

Election time in Canada

For all you Canadians enjoying the election feeling cynical about politics I would like to point out some things about Taiwan's most recent elections.
A co-teacher of mine's girlfriend's family recieved 40$ per person for their votes.
At least 17 people in Tainan county, where I live, were charged with vote buying.
A condidate for Taidung county magistrate who had been convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison on vote-buying and corruption charges ran for office during the last election while his case was under appeal.He won.
The election battle was mainly between the DPP party and the KMT. The KMT called the DPP corrupt because of recent scandal. The DPP on the other hand reminded voters that the KMT is essentially pro-China and, as the previous rulers of the one party state, synonymous with corruption and backroom-dealing.

Whatever you may think about the Canadian election, Canadian parties and politics in general you should know that there is worse, much worse. Canadian politics is pretty clean and in general Canadians should be proud.