Some Thoughts on Democratic Reform
Posted on January 22, 2010
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Having spent some time exploring through the discussions at the Facebook page Canadians Against Proroguing Government I have noticed many of the discussions have centered around the participants view on democratic reform. In view of Harper’s rather disturbing abuse of our parliamentary system, this is pretty understandable.
In the other Westminster style parliamentary systems throughout the world, no evidence has been found of abuse equalling what Harper has carried out with impunity. It appears for many Canadians that has been a wake up call to them to pay attention to what our governments are doing and excess liberties a Prime Minister takes.
It has been interesting reading some of the opinions and ideas expressed on the CAPP page about democratic reform. It has sparked me to think through my own opinions on the subject.
Education
Yes, education is top on my list. The majority of people I’ve spoken to tell me they didn’t receive any education in how our government runs when they were in school unless they chose to take a course in high school. My American friends tell me a half year Civics course is mandatory in the first year of high school. That’s an idea which I believe has merit.
One element which has allowed Harper to abuse our democratic process is his ability to distort perceptions with the public. Let’s use last year’s prorogation as an example.
Most Canadians aren’t aware we don’t directly elect the government, we elect a Parliament. Yes, we send 308 MPs to Parliament and one of those MPs becomes the Prime Minister because his party received the most seats in Parliament. The Prime Minister leads the Government, the rest of the seats become the Opposition with the largest of those being the Official Opposition.
So, in the fall of 2008 Canadians elected a Parliament which allowed Harper to form a minority government. The number of seats his party attained was not greater than the total seats held by the Opposition. Harper was able to lead the Government side of Parliament only as long as he was able to hold the confidence of the Opposition side of the House that he was fit to govern.
When his government presented an economic statement which continued to ignore the plight of Canadians from a deepening recession and then added the poison pill of trying to withdraw government subsidies for the parties which make up our Parliament the Opposition reacted in rare solidarity. They reached an agreement on a coalition to govern with rather than plunge the country into another election. They then agreed to call for a motion of non-confidence at the first opportunity.
Now, I’m not going to get into whether the makeup of the coalition was good or bad, that’s another argument. Harper took advantage of the fact most Canadians didn’t understand how Parliament functions within the context of a minority government and framed the coalition as ‘an illegal coup’, ‘undemocratic’ and ‘theft of Canadian’s votes’. It was non of those things, in fact it was Parliament doing their job. It would have fallen to Canadians to pass judgment when we voted next.
Had Canadians understood how Parliament works, they would have seen Harper as the deceiver he is at that point.
Elections & Electoral Boundaries
I have in the past expressed some frustration at only one vote to show my pleasure or displeasure towards the party and/or the leader. Having said that for the most part, I’m okay with staying with the first past the post system of elections we currently have. If a candidate for any party can’t convince the majority of the voters in a riding to cast their vote in his/her favour, I don’t want that person claiming to represent me in Parliament.
The distribution of ridings is what becomes more important to me. There needs to be some sort of balance in the amount of population in each riding so candidates have as much opportunity in one riding as the next. However, there also has to be balance between the number of rural and city ridings.
While I don’t know exactly what the formula is which strikes the necessary balance between the two areas of need, I do know the process needs to be implemented away from the ability of the government of the day to manipulate.
Since Harper has come to power, there has been a review of electoral boundaries across the country with the recommendation that up to five seats should be added to Ontario and some other seats added to some of the western provinces. His government chose to move on the western seats since that is where the bulk of his party’s support comes from but has ignored Ontario.
When Ontario Premier McQuinty spoke up and complained about the openly political manipulation, he was called “the small man of Confederation” by one of Harper’s cabinet ministers. A Prime Minister with any sense of propriety would have rebuked this minister for his derogatory comment and then given McQuinty’s complaint at minimum some sort of reasoned response. Harper doesn’t have that sense.
So, we need to equitably distribute electoral boundaries but it needs to be done through a process that isn’t open to manipulation or abuse. I’ll continue to remind myself that I vote for an MP and then factor in what I think of the candidate’s leader.
The Governor General
The Governor General is not our Head of State, (that is the Queen), but does function as the Head of State. When our system is working properly, the GG should be a denier of power and abuse by the Prime Minister and his government.
I did say when the system is working properly. There are many who believe this office should be elected, while others want to just throw it away. The latter group largely don’t understand what the role of the GG is supposed to be. Some of that lack of understanding comes about because we rarely see the GG called on to act when it matters. As for the former group, I’m not a believer that democracy can only be attained through electing every element of our government.
I tend to believe democracy is attained when the checks and balances between elected and unelected elements are treated like a sacred trust which must be upheld. We’ve seen repeatedly how the electoral process can be manipulated by the manipulation of public opinion and perceptions.
While it is generally understood the GG acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, we often forget the GG has the right and a duty to consult with the other parts of the Parliament of the people, the Official Opposition, in making a decision on a request from the Prime Minister.
Remember the coalition? Had Harper not convinced the GG to prorogue Parliament last year and the vote of non-confidence had succeeded the coalition would then have had to have presented themselves to the GG and asked her to allow them to form the Government. She would have then had the right and the duty to consider if this request would provide Canadians with stable government or if it would be better to send the question to the people.
With that level of responsibility, I believe Canadians have right to expect their GG is a person of high integrity and moral courage to make the tough decisions when dealing with a political process like we have.
The Magna Carta from which our system developed came about to stop the absolute power of Monarchs over the people. The Monarch and her representatives serve to stop the absolute power of those the people elect from stealing our right to elect.
Currently the Prime Minister selects the GG and then recommends the choice to the Queen for appointment. This takes place every five years. This office has become highly political and ripe with patronage over the years, and that is where the rot comes in.
While I don’t agree the GG should be elected, I do believe that in this day and age of electronic media the people should have a say. I would like to see a system in place that starts at least a year prior to the next appointment which allows citizens to nominate members of their community to be the GG. The nomination would need to be supported by at least ten other Canadians and contain a citation of the grounds on which the nominators feel this person should be GG.
A thorough background check would then have to be carried out by our security services and any nominees not eliminated through skeletons in their closet should then be turned over to a committee. The committee should be an equal number from each party in the House and the Senate chaired by one of the Supreme Court judges.
The committee would be charged with reviewing each nomination and bringing the list down to ten. Those ten should then come before the committee, in public hearings, to be ‘interviewed’ for the position. The final choice would then be passed to the Prime Minister of the day to recommend to the Queen. A similar process could be implemented by each Province for the selection of their Lieutenant-Governor.
The Senate
Ah the Senate, when it is working, it should be the place of sober second thought on the Bills passed in Parliament. Many believe this part of over governance should be eliminated, others want it to be an elected body. I don’t agree with either choice myself. I also don’t like the Prime Minister having the lone power to appoint.
Harper and his minions have been proclaiming loudly as of late that the Liberal dominated Senate has been blocking his Government’s bills. When the Senate is doing its job, it should be examining each and every piece of legislation which it receives from the House of Commons and, if warranted, make amendments rather than just rubber stamping. The amended Bill would then return to the House for reconsideration. This process can be lengthy but at the same time, it should produce legislation which is well developed and thought out.
When we have a minority government, that process becomes even more important. If you will recall, some of the legislation the Harper government wanted passed was done so under the threat that Harper would make it a matter of confidence which placed the Opposition in the position of triggering an election or holding their nose and passing the bill. That is not in the best interest of the people. Thus the body of sober second thought becomes important.
It is the type of political manipulation that Harper has engaged in which convinces me we don’t need a second body of elected politicians which can be likewise manipulated. I know that party leanings can’t be eliminated from the Senate but I also believe that shouldn’t be a criteria for the selection of a Senator. The votes of the Senate should be independent of party affiliations.
Even in our current system, the leader of the political parties in the House of Commons is not supposed to even attempt to influence their party members in the Senate. Harper deceives Canadians by referring to the Liberal Senators as “Ignatieff’s Liberal Senators”. They may be members of the Liberal party but they don’t come under the leader of the party’s direction. Apparently Harper has been exerting control over the Conservative Senators.
I believe a process like I’ve described above for the selection of the GG could be implemented for the Senate. The difference would be the committee which vets the nominees would come from the Provincial Legislature in the Province the Senator is being chosen for and the chair would be from the Provincial Supreme Court.
I do believe Senators should be subjected to terms of office, four years each seems to be reasonable. Any Senator having served their term can be renominated as many times as citizens see fit to do so but the nominee must go through the process like any one else.
A Senate not drawn along political party lines would elect among themselves a Speaker of the Senate whose duty it would be to control the debate on the bills which come before it. Each Senator would have to work to the benefit of the province which sent it or expect to be replaced in the next round of nominations.
Well those are my thoughts on democratic reform. What are yours?
We Will Remember Them
Posted on January 21, 2010
Filed Under Ides of May | Leave a Comment
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them
In memory of our fallen Canadians:
Sgt John Faught — Afghanistan January 16, 2010
Sgt Mark Gallagher — RCMP — Haiti January 12, 2010
Supt Douglas Coates — RCMP — Haiti January 12, 2010
Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated
Support Our Troops — Wear Red on Fridays
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Haiti Becomes Harper’s “Relief”
Posted on January 19, 2010
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Since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, Harper has responded decisively to the crisis in Haiti by sending our troops and resources into the area to assist with aid and security. He was able to do this in a timely manner, the first flights arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, because of one other task he undertook after coming to office. He moved to properly equip our Canadian Armed Force so they can get the job done. There is still work to do but much has been done.
In his more pragmatic, cunning moments since last Tuesday he must be breathing some huge sighs of relief. He was taking some serious heat from the public and the polls over his decision to shut down Parliament for the second time in a year. That must have been hard on him, after he and his minions pontificating that neither the Afghan detainee issue nor the proroguing of Parliament were even on Canadians radar.
The polls showed he had dropped from near majority territory and a solid 15 points ahead of the Liberals in the fall to almost tied with the Liberals early this month. Harper must be finding it awful hard to have to actually deal with the fact he can rigidly control his Conservative MPs but can’t control the Opposition or the Canadian people.
The horrific news from Haiti may have momentarily pushed the reaction to Harper’s undemocratic moves from the media’s main stories for now but Canadians haven’t forgotten. The facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament continues to grow. Two weeks ago today 22,000 people belonged to it, today 203,817 belong. Seventeen have joined since I started writing this article.
The group has been a springboard for another website noprorogue.ca. That site is focused on the organization of the rallies scheduled for Saturday Jan 23rd across the country and even reports of rallies happening internationally spearheaded by expat Canadians. To find out where the closest rally is to you, visit the site.
The reaction to Harper’s undemocratic arrogance cuts across party lines. That doesn’t mean Canadians aren’t watching the Opposition to see what they have to offer and what they are going to do to pull Harper’s license to govern.
We Will Remember Them
Posted on January 16, 2010
Filed Under Out of the Shadows | Leave a Comment
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them
In memory of our fallen Canadians:
Sgt John Faught — Afghanistan January 16, 2010
Sgt Mark Gallagher — RCMP — Haiti January 12, 2010
Supt Douglas Coates — RCMP — Haiti January 12, 2010
Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated
Support Our Troops — Wear Red on Fridays
New Year; New Look
Posted on January 7, 2010
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I’m starting the year off with a new look on the blog. Seems to freshen it up. Now, it is time to get down to posting more regularly.
Let me know what you think of the new look.
If you like this post, please tweet it. Follow me on Tweeter here
Online Noise or Springboard to Action?
Posted on January 7, 2010
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I’ve been watching a group on Facebook for the last couple of days called Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. The group was formed on December 30th in response to Harper proroguing parliament the second time in a year. On Tuesday (Jan 5th) the group had just over 20,000 members, as of this writing it has surpassed 80,000.
A second group for coordinating the location of rallies across the country on January 23rd is also up and running. Offline planning meetings for some of the projected rallies are currently scheduled.
Discussion on the CAPP group is steady and lively. While some are simply demanding the MPs get back to work (aka back into Parliament) some are putting forth some very reasoned thoughts about how continued abuse of our Parliamentary system can be reigned in. Ideas about perceived needs for reform of various aspects of our Parliamentary institution.
People in the group are reporting on their attempts to contact their MPs, especially their Conservative MPs, to voice their displeasure. Most are being met with the party line that this suspension of parliament is just routine business and that the citizen who contacted them to express their will is misguided and misinformed. The arrogance of the leader has apparently rubbed off on those who follow him.
Yes, under normal circumstances, proroguing Parliament is the normal way to start a new session of Parliament. The Conservatives are using PM Jean Chretien having prorogued parliament four times during his ten years in power as an example of just how routine it is. Nice try guys but no brownie points. Three of the times Chretien prorogued was in order to call an election, that is normal and routine. The fourth time he prorogued was a dirty trick in that it brought about delay of the Auditor’s General report on the sponsorship scandal until PM Paul Martin was installed as leader of the Liberals and Prime Minister.
Chretien abused parliament to avoid wearing the sponsorship issue any sooner than he had to. Harper abused parliament to avoid a motion of non-confidence last January. His claim was that the Opposition parties were trying to overthrow the government the people had elected. He and his cronies took advantage of the fact many if not most Canadians don’t fully understand that we elect a Parliament of which the party with the greatest number of seats forms the government.
The government has to hold the confidence of the House (all the elected MPs) in order to continue to govern. In a minority government where the governing party doesn’t hold more seats than the Opposition’s combined the loss of confidence can mean a new election, the Official Opposition takes over government or even a coalition of Opposition parties could take over government. Harper and his cronies ignored those facts and took advantage of the Canadian people not understanding how their Parliamentary system works.
This current proroguing of Parliament contains elements of trying to take advantage again. This time, Harper may have overstepped himself once again. This time, even those who don’t fully understand the bill of goods being handed to them certainly understand that Harper is abusing the system and a growing number are working on demonstrating their displeasure.
Conservative media types and pollsters are dismissing the Facebook groups as just online noise which doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. I find the pollsters dismissal rather hypocritical. They take a sampling of usually 1500 people from across the country and then project from that rather small sample the pulse of the country. This group has 80,000 people and growing but they are irrelevant?
I’m not sure this lively group will translate into widespread offline protest across the country on January 23rd but I’m not willing to write them off. If nothing else, the group is a forum for those who are willing to organize and promote the protest to communicate and coordinate. That in itself is usually the base that is needed to start towards a successful protest.
Even more important, it is showing at least some Canadians are engaged and watching Harper and his antics. He currently has good reason to want to avoid an election no matter what those pollsters are claiming his level of support is.
Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority & character increase as the importance of the position increases~John Adams
Welcome to 2010 and The Further Decline of Democracy
Posted on January 2, 2010
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Well here we go again, the start of a new year and Harper has once again shuttered Parliament for his own partisan, butt protecting purposes. He’s trying, well actually his spokespeople since he’s too arrogant to bother addressing the people he never listens to anyways, to present this closure of parliament as ‘routine’.
One of his mouthpieces used the example of Chretien proroguing Parliament four times. He failed to note that was four times in TEN years in power. Harper has been in power FOUR years and has prorogued Parliament THREE times, twice in the last year. There is nothing routine about this flip of the bird towards the seat of our democracy.
Just what was Governor General Jean thinking when she allowed this arrogant pup to not only shut down this session but to do so over the phone? The message he sent her was clear, you are my puppet and I don’t even care enough about Canada’s democratic processes to even appear to go through the motions.
As GG, Madame Jean is also Commander in Chief of our Canadian Armed Forces, a role she appears to take rather seriously. She needs to realize that responsibility is more than inspecting or visiting troops or wearing the uniform on Remembrance Day. She has a responsibility to uphold the values of the country those men and women fight to defend.
GG Jean had the power to say ‘no’ to his ‘request’ and certainly had lots of reasons not to grant it.
On the day she apparently so casually allowed Harper to dictate the closure of Parliament four more young Canadians, one who looks barely old enough to shave let alone fight, and a journalist died in Afghanistan. On Christmas Day an attempt to bring down an airliner headed into the US failed. Had it succeeded, the death and destruction would have landed on southwestern Ontario.
The perpetrators of those acts are part of an insurgency which finds roots and safe haven in weak and failed states. States without effective democratic governments and people who are empowered to hold the feet of the government to the fire to keep them safe.
The Governor General has a duty and a responsibility to make the tough decisions which stops a Prime Minister of any political stripe from abusing his power. Allowing him to prorogue last year so soon after an election and to avoid a potential constitutional crisis — the vote of confidence he ran from — could have created was questionable.
Allowing him to prorogue at this time and allowing him to run from the motion passed by the majority in the House ordering the government to produce unredacted documents to those investigating the detainee issue, that is unforgivable.
The Governor General has abdicated her responsibilities to the Canadian people and in doing so allows a not so benign dictator to abuse the powers of our democracy.
I find it hard to believe that even Conservatives are not questioning the lengths Harper will go to avoid taking responsibility for his or his minions behaviour. Surely grassroots Conservatives are not so hungry to stay in government they condone a leader who is such a control freak he muzzles his cabinet and caucus with an iron fist to bend them to his will and when he can’t do the same to the Opposition, he shutters Parliament?
Surely grassroots Conservatives want to know if the leadership had a hand in the RCMPs abrupt public announcement during the 2006 campaign of a criminal investigation which clearly swayed the outcome of the election even though it proved to be an investigation without merit?
Surely grassroots Conservatives want to know if the in and out scheme used during the 2006 election campaign did constitute electoral fraud? Surely they want those responsible if it was brought to justice just as much as they wanted those responsible for the Sponsorship Scandal brought to justice? The election Harper abruptly called in 2008 terminated the work of the Ethics Committee and their attempt to get to the bottom of the issue.
In that election the majority of those who voted elected someone other than a Conservative. Keep in mind only about 40% of eligible Canadians voted in that election which means only a small percentage of Canadians actually voted for the Conservatives. Under our system of government, Harper could only remain Prime Minister as long as he could maintain the confidence of the majority of those in the House of Commons.
When he clearly failed to recognize the depth and importance of the economic recession he had attempted to deny was even taking place during the election campaign, he lost the confidence of the House. He galvanized the Opposition parties into taking clear action and presenting a viable alternative to calling another election so soon after the previous one. That sent him running to the Governor General to buy himself time to present some real action or at least the promise of real action to the people.
So, here we are a year later. We now have a record deficit staring us in the face. A Prime Minister and Finance Minister who are trying to claim there will be not increases in taxes to deal with this but are not yet saying what is going to be cut in order to rebalance the books. Not sure many are truly buying that line, especially Conservatives.
They travel around giving speeches about how well Canada has weathered the global downturn like they had created the policies which laid the groundwork for Canada to do as well as we did — which really hasn’t been great. The fact is had Harper attained a majority before the downturn hit, he was bent on undoing the very policies which in the end served to protect us, policies the Liberals created.
The economy and how to deal with it is up for debate. At this point, the Liberals haven’t produced a clear vision of what they would do any differently so the Conservatives were getting a pretty easy ride.
Then the Afghanistan detainee issue arose. Now, unless the government really has something to hide on this issue, they apparently could have done some mea culpas, disclosed what had happened in 2006-2007, showed how they had fixed the problem and life could have moved on. They could have given full disclosure to the Military Complaints Commission who were charged with investigating the matter and chances are Canadians would have heard little about the issue.
Instead, control freak Harper and his minions set out to try to intimidate those called to testify, refused to release complete documents (even though the members of the commission have high enough security clearances) and generally worked to impede the operation of the Commission to the point that Opposition MPs had to take up the struggle. Witnesses who did testify were branded by the Conservatives as traitors, liars, Taliban lovers and non-supporters of our troops amongst other choices.
Frustrated at every turn by the governments stonewalling, the Opposition parties passed a motion imposing the supremacy of Parliament which Harper vowed to ignore. The stage was set for what would have been a rather interesting test of Parliamentary will. Something Harper had long thundered about the absence of from the Opposition benches during his time there.
Once more, Harper ran to the GG and shut down the House rather than face the music. For a guy who loves to wrap himself in the flag and pledge his undying love and respect for our men and women in uniform, it’s too bad he doesn’t have even an ounce of the courage and leadership they display every day when they go out on patrol in Afghanistan.
This country needs a democratic leader, not a tinpot dictator.
We Will Remember Them
Posted on December 31, 2009
Filed Under Ides of May | Leave a Comment
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them
In memory of our fallen Canadians:
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan [...]
If you like this post, please tweet it. Follow me on Tweeter here
We Will Remember Them
Posted on December 31, 2009
Filed Under Out of the Shadows | Leave a Comment
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them
In memory of our fallen Canadians:
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Fallen Canadian — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Michelle Lang — embedded journalist — Afghanistan December 30, 2009
Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated
Support Our Troops — Wear Red on Fridays
Tightfisted Canucks Need Tipping Etiquette
Posted on December 29, 2009
Filed Under Cash Challenged | Leave a Comment
A recent study by the Bank of Montreal claims that Canadians tend to be tightfisted when it comes to tipping. The study seems to indicate that the problem is more a lack of understanding of who to tip and how much than truly being tightfisted with their money.
I generally tip in restaurants and when I [...]
Canadians Need to be Careful About Their SIN
Posted on December 29, 2009
Filed Under Cash Challenged | Leave a Comment
This story in last weekends Toronto Star is a prime example why Canadians need to be wary of giving out personal identification, especially your SIN (Social Insurance Number). Private corporations get away with asking you for your SIN but the fact is that rarely is there a legal requirement for you to give [...]
How to Establish Your First Credit
Posted on December 29, 2009
Filed Under Cash Challenged | Leave a Comment
T0day, credit has become a necessity of life. Generally speaking, it takes credit to get credit. So, how do you break into the circle?
There are several ways you can obtain your first credit. Many young people will look to their parents or other established adult to co-sign their first credit. DON’T do it! Don’t [...]
Protecting Your Credit Card
Posted on December 29, 2009
Filed Under Cash Challenged | Leave a Comment
AH the power of a credit card! For a lot of people getting their hands on their first credit card can be as much of a power rush as their first car. Like driving a car, you need to take having a credit card very very seriously.
You may enjoy the freedom of having a credit [...]
Do You Manage Your Money? Or Does it Manage You?
Posted on December 29, 2009
Filed Under Cash Challenged | Leave a Comment
If your financial plan lurches from one credit card limit to the next, you may want to consider that your money is managing you. For your own peace of mind, you have to turn the tables and take control.
That control is as much about having credit and the ability to have credit as it is [...]
Maximize Productivity With Blog Post Writing
Posted on December 25, 2009
Filed Under It's All About Money | Leave a Comment
Today I finally got around to reading some articles I’d tucked away for a future time. Mostly because I’ve been too busy for my own good. One of those articles was on the Associate Program site, hosted by Allan Gardyne. Sally Evans has written an excellen article on improving your productivity and writing your blog [...]
visit the Patti Network News to see where else I’m writing.
Maximize Productivity With Blog Post Writing
