Democratic Potential In Canada

Unfortunately as counter balance to all these governments there is an average Canadian with political awareness of a 10 years old. Sounds very dramatic but it truly is so. The point is that Canadians are entangled in the unimportant things related to some party’s “leader’s” charisma or clothing or views on specific issues that they completely loose sight of a fact that "leaders" do not promote democracy. It is actually silly to mention "following a leader" and "democracy" in the same sentence. I have been blessed and cursed and the same time by having had the opportunity to spend 9 years in the most (only?) democratically run country: Switzerland. Blessed, because I had a chance to experience up close how politically mature citizens form their society and take care of each other and how little "leaders" and "charismatic visionaries" have to do with it. Cursed, because I am so painfully aware of how far away Canadians are from political awakening and democracy itself and how we are being robbed of better quality of life. It is embarrassing and discouraging to observe how much of a soap opera there is here, and how naive Canadians are to believe that this is democracy, and that this is the only way to go. And they keep electing in the same system and expect change to happen miraculously. I have seen and survived many governments here and it is obvious to me that it does not matter who one votes for because they all mismanage, are unaccountable and self-serving. In the Swiss system it does not matter much what a politician thinks because the matter will ultimately be decided by the popular vote. The most people do not even know and care what the name of the president of the country is, so little influence federal politics has on their lives. Just as a mind bending point to start: the "president" of Switzerland is actually a number of individuals who take turns. That way Switzerland does not have to have those love-hate relationships with its presidents and they never become unaccountable because their system has eliminated even the slightest chance of it. None of them becomes an irritating, patronizing "leader" like ours and none of them can share our tax money with his political friends. The advantage of Swiss system is they do not waste time and resources on endless deliberations on issues. Referendums happen often and on all issues, municipally, cantonally and federally and that way prevent even a chance of mismanagement, corruption and waste of taxpayers hard-earned money. Governments have no money, they have to obtain an approval for every spending, no deficites. Their country is stable, safe, enjoys the highest level of employment in Europe and one of the lowest levels of crime (although every Swiss man gets to keep his machine gun at home after he is done with his mandatory military service, or maybe because of that?). They do not strike (their unions use the time before dead line to arrange new agreements) and their debates in parliament are productive unlike this arguing and names calling so cherished by our MPs. Whenever I can, I talk to everyone about this since I wish the best to this country and its people and I do believe that we have the multiple potential of Switzerland which has practically no natural resources, for just one example. Unfortunately it sounds so good and unbelievable to majority of Canadians I know, they have hard time believing and they file it under "fiction". What it would take is to educate the general public that better political system already exists and there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. We are so fortunate to have the proven, working example of Switzerland which produced the richest, proudest and most independent society I have ever met, in a country with the lowest taxes in Europe if not the world. Switzerland is ready to use model of multi-cultural, multi-lingual (4), multi-religious, multi-provincial society that is the richest, most stable, most peaceful and most government-free in Europe and in the world. They have no charity for the purpose of helping their own citizens, they have no dollar stores to kill their own manufacturing, they have no donut shops and fast food to turn their life into this ridiculous “to go” arrangement, they have no food banks which is the biggest scar on the face of Canada and the most obvious proof how mismanaged our country is. What I am missing in the media is some kind of suggestion to the public that we desperately need here some new approach to Canadian problem. Instead of showing example of a much better, proven, functioning solution, there is the usual discussion about what our "visionary politicians" think to do on various issues. You, the media have the responsibility to teach the public that it is not important what "they" think. What counts is what we think. Many people I know are politically frustrated, disappointed, not well financially, plain angry about being taxed to death and afraid of what the future may bring. I don’t think we have much more time to waste. And we don’t have to; it would be a shame if we did. We need our honest and objective media to let Canadians know the system has to change in this country, not just who talks down to us from the political pedestal. I would be very glad to expand on this issue, with examples, personal impressions and experiences at your convenience. To every Canadian issue there is a democratic solution if only we educate our people. I am prepared to do my part. Would you be interested to do yours? Best Regards, Janusz Dudek P.S. Somewhere on the net I found an article about one of the former Soviet republics studying, with participation of UNO, the political institutions of Switzerland, with the intention of adopting them for their country. Could it be they are smarter and more honest with themselves than Canadians?