The following was written January 16th 2002 (7 years ago!), and addresses one of the things I want to get to.
Note: This is just my opinion, take it for what it’s worth…
Canadian Democracy?
Canadian democracy. Where is it?
Are we deceived?
When you turn on the television you will see the “expert” saying that our right to protest is a sign of democracy. This “expert” will also show a clip of a person voting will say that also is a sign of democracy. But sadly it seems that is all democracy offers in Canada.
If you think about it for a moment, we elect our dictators. Once a majority government is elected, they practically have dictatorial control. Regardless of what the citizens think or want, the government can pass any bill they want. The education bills passed during the Harris administration in Ontario were done with a lot of dissent from the general public.
There were mass rallies held to protest the bill. That didn’t change anything. It was a majority government. I call that a dictatorship.
The mega city bill is another example. Did we have a choice? And if so, did it matter? Does it really matter if we phone our MPs and tell them that we would like them to vote a certain way for a bill? The MPs will most likely vote as the leadership tells them to.
Some raise a point that the minority governments are kept “in check”. This unfortunately is not true. In Canada if the government is out voted on a bill, they are expected to call an election. This would imply that if the opposition parties didn’t like the minority government, they could easily build a coalition to defeat the bill proposed by the government and thus forcing an election. Or, if a minority government sees that support for them has risen, they can likewise create a bill where they will surely be defeated. Then an election can be called so that the minority government has a chance at becoming a majority government. Trudeau did it.
To me it seems like we are being played around with. Our protests amount to nothing, yet we pride ourselves in being able to protest. We elect our dictators, and then we hear about new bills after they have already been passed.
While governmental parties play with politics, the citizens lose the game.
Just my 1.8 cents.
(still to be continued…)