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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Citizen's Assembly

The last two posts talks about Minority Governs and the issue of Electoral Reform. In these discussion was mentioned the creation of the Citizen's Assembly. I want to focus on this idea of a Citizen's Assembly.

The idea of forming a Assembly of regular Citizens with a variety of ages and a mixture of politically aware and political novices to focus on a social issue is awesome. To have the findings of such a Assembly put before the CITIZENSHIP in a referendum is truly DEMOCRACY in ACTION. In order for such Assembly to truly work there can be no POLITICIANS OR BUREAUCRATS included in the Assembly, the members must have a true representative of the young, middle age, and the elders and a true mixture of experience. 

Such a Assembly would do more than to deal with social issues, it incorporates the CITIZENS in the actual GOVERNING of our society. It could function in much the same way as Juries are selected. Such a system would go along way in the general public reclaiming their social governing, it goes to OWNERSHIP of our governing system. Currently the general public only have a vote every 4 years and 40% of the public do not even vote then. The general citizenship does not feel a true part of or have any real affect on our GOVERNMENT. This type of Assembly will go along way in the CITIZENS reclaiming their GOVERNMENT.

Minortiy Governs 2

In the last post I talked about the BC-STV Electoral Reform referendum that took place in 2005. In the last post I mentioned INCORRECTLY that there had never been any further referendum on this in the last 6 years. On further research I have found that this same Electoral Reform was again put before the voters in a 2009 referendum. The result of this referendum was only 39.9% in SUPPORT of the BC-STV.

I was very surprised to discover this 2009 referendum on BC-STV. I have no memory of  the BC-STV being apart of the last election. I do not know why I have no memory of this. I was very much aware of the 2005 referendum and remembering when it just failed to pass and wanting it to return in a future referendum. How I could have missed the 2009 referendum when I was looking forward to it surprises me. If I missed it how many others missed it too? From the results of the 2009 referendum 39.9% vs 57.69% would indicated a few others may have missed the 2009 referendum.

Why did I miss it?

In the 2005 referendum there was a lot of buzz about it and a level of excitement in possibly making some serious changes to our Governing System. I admit that I do not see the BC-STV as the savior or a perfect system or it may not be all that good of a system. However, to make such fundamental change to our system needs to begin somewhere and the BC-STV would have been a perfect beginning. The Citizen Assembly that was setup to make such a change is something that is also important in bring TRUE DEMOCRACY to our system. Where a Assembly of CITIZENS, not politicians or bureaucrats but a wide range of CITIZENS are EMPOWERED to make recommendations to the CITIZENSHIP. It was the PROCESS that is important here, almost more important than the BC-STV itself.

In 2009 the BC-STV was buried, very little or no publicity on it, other political issues were hyped up and it became the old 'shell-game'. The POWERS THAT BE moved the focus away from the BC-STV and quietly put the issue on the ballot without much ado. The fact that in 2005 the BC-STV almost passed scared the hell out of the POWERS THAT BE.

Why did the BC-STV fail?

There are 3 main reasons that I see why the BC-STV failed in 2005 and in 2009:

  1. Our political climate is very much in a polarized state. The mere fact that Gordon Campbell had organized the CITIZEN ASSEMBLY and the focus on Electoral Reform would have turn a percentage of the citizenship against the whole process. It did not matter what the issue is, just that Campbell was responsible for it would be enough to turn some away.
  2. Fear of Change. The old saying - 'Better the devil you know than the one you don't' - is always a issue when making such fundamental changes.The 4 years that separated the two referendums (2005 - 2009) caused some to concede to their FEAR.
  3. Down playing and burying the BC-STV on the 2009 referendum and the distraction of the voters onto other issues allowed the referendum to slip through with a minimum of exposure.
     
These are the reasons that I see why the Electoral Reform failed and it was a missed opportunity. We often lose sight of the issue when we are too focused on the MESSENGER. Until we start to make some major changes we will have a unreasonable FEAR to such changes. We need to face our FEARS and make the changes, to discover the FEARS were unreasonable. We need to pay better attention, ME INCLUDED.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Minority Governs

In our current system the MINORITY GOVERNS. In a TRUE DEMOCRACY the MAJORITY GOVERNS. This last election is not the only sign of this system of the MINORITY GOVERNS, with the 39% voting for the Conservatives that formed a MAJORITY in the HOUSE with 54% of the seats.

In May of 2005 there was a referendum for Electoral Reform that was the BC-STV and 57% of the voters voted in SUPPORT of the Reform (It needed 60% to actual come into being, which I support as a large Majority should be required to make such a fundamental change) and 97% of the constituencies were in SUPPORT. In the Throne Speech in September 2005 the government promised to bring this referendum on Electoral Reform back to the people. It has been over 6 years and this Electoral Reform has not been heard of again.


The POWERS THAT BE do not want any Electoral Reform they are very happy with this Minority Governs system. I believe that the BC-STV scared the hell out of them and want the whole idea of REFORM dead. 


I do believe that we need a LARGE MAJORITY (60%) in order to make fundamental changes to our system. With a SIMPLE MAJORITY we can alienate too many and it can seriously divide the citizens of the country. Saying this the showing of the Majority in the BC-STV referendum was enough that it needed to be brought back before the citizens for another vote. The fact that it has been buried and no one wants to hear of it demonstrates a very strong DISRESPECT to the MAJORITY OF THE CITIZENS.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Defining Government

We need to REDEFINE what Government IS and above all the LIMITATIONS of Government.

If the economical activities in Europe have any lessons to learn we need to come to the understanding that the Government cannot DO EVERY THING. It is too costly and has a LIMITED ability to do EVERY THING. In order to define the LIMIT of Government we need to also define the ROLE and the RESPONSIBILITY of the INDIVIDUAL. 

As an example of what I mean lets look at the issue of HEALTH. In Canada we have a UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE system. We expect and even demand that ALL of our HEALTH issues should be paid for by the Government. It has gotten to the point where the Government is spending almost half of their total income on HEALTH CARE, and it is not enough.

I worked in the Health Field for 18 years and active in my Health Care Union, with the NDP, Liberal and the old Social Credit party in power. Every single year we were screaming that more money needed to be spent on HEALTH CARE. There was never enough money! It did not matter what Political Party was in power. One thing I learned over these years is that MONEY is not the answer, what we need to do is to refine what the Government is responsible for in HEALTH CARE, and what is the INDIVIDUAL'S responsibility.

We need to UNDERSTAND the Government is not responsible for ALL of our HEALTH ISSUES, our wants and desires. We need to reach a understanding of what the Government should be responsible for and what can be reasonably expected. LIFE THREATENING Health Issues needs to be supported by Government UNIVERSAL CARE. This is a good place to start and how far it is expanded is the subject of discussion.

The issue of HEALTH CARE is just an example of what I mean by REDEFINING the role of Government. This needs to be expanded to every area of Government.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Political Parties

Political Parties are the major roadblock to true Democracy. Political Parties in ALL their many strips serve only to divide the citizens of the country. ALL of the Parties have their own focus that is to promote their own philosophy and objectives. None are concerned with the GREATER GOOD of the country and the citizens. This is not knew or of a revelation as one can observe their behavior in the HOUSE and how DISRESPECTFUL they are to each other, their is no attempt at UNITY.

A true Democracy UNITIES the citizens in a manner that focuses on the GREATER GOOD of the country and the individual citizen. The different philosophies and objectives are able to find common ground where everyone can unite behind. We occasionally see the possibility of working in a common manner when we have a minority government.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

We Want Democracy!

We want a Democracy that is TRUE REPRESENTATION. The last Federal Election the Conservative Party won 39.6% of the votes BUT received 54.2% of the House Seats - HOW IS THAT ANY SORT OF REPRESENTATION? This is what has to STOP.

As long as we continue to have the MINORITY of the population GOVERNING the MAJORITY we will continue to have inequity in the system.This inequity is even more pronounced when we look further into the last Election. The 39.6% that the Conservatives received was of the number of Votes cast and only 61% of the eligible voters actually voted. This means the Conservative Government is only supported by 25 - 30% of the population. The question is - How can this in any way be considered DEMOCRACY and it certainly is not any sort of REPRESENTATION.



Monday, October 17, 2011

What we Want?

I have asked coworkers if they have been to the Demo and they have ALL said what Demo? When I tell them Occupy Vancouver there response is - Oh...the ones who do not know what they want!

It is the BEGINNING that is important here. We are so conditioned that we MUST KNOW EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT. We know what we want - Freedom, Fairness, Security, Health and Representation. How do we get these desires and how we define them needs to be discussed in a open form - Occupation Vancouver.

The O-V is the beginning in defining these desires and how to achieve them. It is the first time I have seen or participated in such a process. The NEWNESS of this opportunity is EXCITING. With no single AGENDA to control or direct the process.



Sunday, October 16, 2011

Occupy Vancouver

I was at the Demo on Saturday and was inspired by the turnout (5000) and hope that the Occupation continues. It was like walking down memory lane, with the same sort of speeches and the same mentality of "Us vs Them". In some way it is very Limiting and Dis-empowering, as we blame the Capitalists, Governments and other Powers as the source of our problems and very little in the way of resolving the problems except to battle each other. This keeps us divided as US against THEM and what we need to do is to UNITE.

Capitalism vs Communism/Socialism is a old concept dating back to the 1800s. We need to bring our Mind-set to the 21 Century and out of this constant struggle that has no end. This is why we need something NEW. A method where the Capitalist and the Socialist can unite to build a community that respects all views, with a set of STANDARDS that everyone can respect and live and prosper from.

I do not have the answers but I am searching for possibilities. This blog will be for discussions on how we search for the answers we need.