In the last election (May 2011) the Conservative Party won 39.6% of the casted votes and won 53.9% of the House Seats. How this can be called Government by Representation is beyond me. I am sure that the powers-that-be will have all kinds of generalization in how this is acceptable, IT IS NOT REPRESENTATION.
This 39.6% is deceiving as it is only 39.6% of the 61% that voted. It is not 39.6% of the Citizens of Canada that supported the Conservatives. If you project the 39.6% that the Conservatives received to the population of Canada is would be closer to 25% of the population. It is this 25% of the population that is GOVERNING all the Citizens of Canada, it is the MINORITY THAT GOVERNS.
The first thing that we need to change is this discrepancy between the % of votes received and the % of seats in the House. With 39.6% of the votes cast, should receive 39.6% of the House Seats, this is REPRESENTATION. I know the first objection will be that there would never be a MAJORITY GOVERNMENT. This is fine, this is REPRESENTATION. The Citizens of Canada are never that heavily one-sided on anything, only Parties are. This would also greatly defuse the different PARTIES in their obsession of winning, you cannot win a majority anyway.
With the ability of WINNING A MAJORITY greatly reduced, the Parties will return to their different philosophies and with the realization that they will have to work in a cooperative manner as opposed to a confrontational manner. This will greatly redefine 'Question Period' and other disrespectful behavior that has been past-practice in Government.
This simple step greatly reduces the POWER STRUCTURE and returns much of this POWER OF GOVERNMENT back to the CITIZENS where it belongs.
In such a environment the individual representatives will have a balanced field to truly represent the Citizens that elected them. The Party's Dogma will have to be replaced with a more acceptable position with the House as a whole. Without a Party in a position of Majority, the House members as a whole would appoint representatives to different government portfolios. As an example the Minister of Energy would be appointed by the House and will be responsible to the House as a whole, not just the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister would also be appointed by the House as a whole. We as Citizens have never elected our Prime Minister, the Parties do. Each Party elects the leader of their Party, and the Leader of the Party with the most seats in the House is the Prime Minister. This too leads to Power corruption, if the Prime Minister is elected by the Representatives would greatly increase the Power of the individual representatives. The Representatives are directly responsible to the electorate in their district.
When we can return the Power to the elected representatives we are also returning the Power to the electorate where the Power belongs.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Disenfranchised Citizens
In the last Federal Election (May 2011) 61% of the registered voters actually voted, that leaves 39% of registered voters did not. Prior to 1997 federal election the average voter turn-out was in the 70% or higher. In 1997 election the turn-out had dropped to 67% and it has fallen every election since to 61% in 2011. This pattern shows a stead decline in voter turn-out and the Citizens becoming disenfranchised from their own GOVERNMENT.These percentages do not incorporate the eligible voters that may not have registered, there are more disenfranchised citizens then just the 39% registered voters that did not vote.
We need to explore ways to make our Government more responsive to the Citizens that it Governs.
Today one would have more access to the Government if one was a member of the Political Party that has the majority of the House Seats, then a non-affiliated Citizen. We are Governed by Political Parties and not by the elected representatives and it is in the best interests of the Political Party that is the priority, not the Country or the Citizens. When an elected representative speaks on behalf of the Citizens that elected the person and it is against the policy of the Party, the representative is often kicked-out of the Party and sits as a independent. It is the Political Party that controls the elected representatives, not the Citizens that they are elected to represent.
It is this type of control that the Political Parties have over our elected representatives that frustrates and demoralizes the Citizens in their Government. Even with the Citizens that do vote, it is often a vote against a Party then a vote in support of a Party. The Political Parties themselves have sacrificed much of their philosophy with the sole objective of winning a majority of seats in the House.
It can be argued that our Government is not a representation of the People, that it is a dictatorship of differing philosophies. Even these differing philosophies have become blurred in the all out effort to WIN A MAJORITY. The Parties will say and do anything that will help them win!
It has become a POWER GAME and one of WINNING AT ALL COSTS! The issue of actually GOVERNING the country in the interests of the CITIZENS has been lost in this obsession of WINNING.
In order to change this process we need to defuse the POWER STRUCTURE. We need to de-centerlize the POWER STRUCTURE so that the POWER is not so easily controlled. We also need to bring our Government process into the 21st Century.
We need to explore ways to make our Government more responsive to the Citizens that it Governs.
Today one would have more access to the Government if one was a member of the Political Party that has the majority of the House Seats, then a non-affiliated Citizen. We are Governed by Political Parties and not by the elected representatives and it is in the best interests of the Political Party that is the priority, not the Country or the Citizens. When an elected representative speaks on behalf of the Citizens that elected the person and it is against the policy of the Party, the representative is often kicked-out of the Party and sits as a independent. It is the Political Party that controls the elected representatives, not the Citizens that they are elected to represent.
It is this type of control that the Political Parties have over our elected representatives that frustrates and demoralizes the Citizens in their Government. Even with the Citizens that do vote, it is often a vote against a Party then a vote in support of a Party. The Political Parties themselves have sacrificed much of their philosophy with the sole objective of winning a majority of seats in the House.
It can be argued that our Government is not a representation of the People, that it is a dictatorship of differing philosophies. Even these differing philosophies have become blurred in the all out effort to WIN A MAJORITY. The Parties will say and do anything that will help them win!
It has become a POWER GAME and one of WINNING AT ALL COSTS! The issue of actually GOVERNING the country in the interests of the CITIZENS has been lost in this obsession of WINNING.
In order to change this process we need to defuse the POWER STRUCTURE. We need to de-centerlize the POWER STRUCTURE so that the POWER is not so easily controlled. We also need to bring our Government process into the 21st Century.
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