[slededit]

> You don't vote for the prime minister. You vote for the party representative in your area.

The MPP in my riding gave that line when she came by. We got Ford, and this particular MPP is the least responsive in the entire provincial parliament. Whatever sympathy I had for that line of reasoning is now lost, the fact is your MP or MPP has very little individual power. Much less than a representative has in the USA.

[kevin_nisbet]

Yea, and on the federal level, I can find virtually no information on most of the candidates in my riding. I think there was a riding debate, but AFAICT it hasn't been published so I can't watch it, although I'm planning to do another search today.

Last federal election cycle, the riding debate had less than 500 views IIRC.

So while the original statement is factually true, I agree with slededit, my impression is we're currently in the state where most people vote for the leader, and the parties are set up in a way to pressure voting along party lines, or get kicked out.