Have you voted yet?

[Pursuivant]

well a "housewife" would actually have neothing better to do than to acquaint herself the the daily issues... so I would listen more to her regarding bus routes and local planning issues than some big honcho who eyes a bus as an obstacle to his beamer...

[Oombongo]

I wonder who payed for ads and their puppy face photographs. The definitely didn't pay from their own pockets.
Some ads were pretty funny. Like there was one lady who had "äiti" written in bold characters under her photo. Like if she's a mommy then she'll be a better person.

LOL@politicians

[sinikala]

well a "housewife" would actually have neothing better to do than to acquaint herself the the daily issues... so I would listen more to her regarding bus routes and local planning issues than some big honcho who eyes a bus as an obstacle to his beamer...

There is always something better to do than being a housewife.

Several Brownie points for standing for local government. Several minus points for not mentioning what she did before becoming a housewife. Several thousand minus points if she has never done anything except be a housewife.

Not to worry, there will be lots of other housewives who will identify with, and vote for each other.

[Rosamunda]

There is always something better to do than being a housewife.

I think there are plenty of women who have little or no choice, because they are full-time carers, either for their children, or for their parents. In that sense being a "housewife" is a demanding job and society severely underrates people who work at home as carers. I agree with Hank, housewives and students are often bigger consumers of municipal budgets than commuters: schools and sports facilities, libraries, transport, healthcare etc. (which was one argument for giving the right to vote to 16 yr olds).

The parties do vet the candidates. The candidates I know were specifically INVITED to stand for the parties they represent and were interviewed prior to being accepted. They also pay their individual printing costs, though I guess party funds are used to pay for the big "party" posters that appear in the press.

IMO the voter should choose the party first (and even with my limited Finnish I have a pretty good idea of who stands for what in Espoo). And then choose a candidate preferably someone you have met or you know. The advantage of the current system - with hundreds of candidates - is that every voter should know at least one or two of them

But with voter turnout at a meagre 58% last time round, there are obviously a lot of people who are not interested. Which is fine... as long as they have nothing to complain about.

[TampereOwl]

That's quite a conclusion to draw, given the thought processes outlined on this thread. I've abstained lots of times before, and never because I 'wasn't interested'.

And I will never, ever stop complaining about politicians.

[sinikala]

There is always something better to do than being a housewife.

I think there are plenty of women who have little or no choice, because they are full-time carers, either for their children, or for their parents. In that sense being a "housewife" is a demanding job and society severely underrates people who work at home as carers.

Let's be clear, carers do a very valuable job, surely someone who is a carer would be listed as huoltaja.

I'm talking here about pictures of candidates clearly in their 50'-60's, children if there were any have long flown the nest, listing themselves only as kotirouva.

IMO the voter should choose the party first (and even with my limited Finnish I have a pretty good idea of who stands for what in Espoo). And then choose a candidate preferably someone you have met or you know. The advantage of the current system - with hundreds of candidates - is that every voter should know at least one or two of them

Which, in all seriousness - it then boils down to a popularity contest. If you know plenty of people, you're likely to get in.

[Pursuivant]

which i then object to the other end - theres people without a drivers licence making traffic planning...

[sinikala]

which i then object to the other end - theres people without a drivers licence making traffic planning...

Quite, which is why there should be some transparency of what qualifications people have to be elected into these positions.

As I told, on the basis of what I have seen, all I can do is eliminate a very small fraction of the candidates, whilst I remain non-the wiser about most of them.

[Mook]

I wonder who payed for ads and their puppy face photographs. The definitely didn't pay from their own pockets.
Some ads were pretty funny. Like there was one lady who had "äiti" written in bold characters under her photo. Like if she's a mommy then she'll be a better person.

LOL@politicians

Actually many do pay out of their own pockets.

[Pursuivant]

there was a survey of price/vote ratio of those who got in and those who were left out in the parliamentary elections when the "election funding" scandal was coming out... some people really put in a lot of money with very little outcome...