ALLAN R. GREGG
THE TREND toward lower voter turnout is like a canary in the mine shaft of Canadian democracy. Over the last 16 years, we have witnessed a 14-per-cent decline in balloting in federal elections. Moreover, the diminishing sense among young people that voting is "essential" suggests that this trend will continue.
When electors cease to go to the polls, it weakens the foundations of democracy because they are tacitly saying:
-- the individual has little impact on, or say in, our national affairs;
-- the welfare of the collective has little bearing on individual well-being; and
-- individual well-being can flourish (or flounder) independent of decisions initiated through legislative democracy.
Why People Don't Vote?: full article
Note: Why People Don't Vote?:...
Stumble It!
The only good ideas in the article was to have more referendums and proportional representation. IMHO the only idea that will get more people to vote is passing bills by referendum. We have the technology so lets put it to use. Then the corporations would have to buy at least half the voting populations votes instead of a handful of MP's or MLA's votes.
The CBC is conducting interviews and the such to examine this very topic - among youth that is.
If you are interested in coming out and making your views heard - email us at screwthevote@canadiandemocraticmovement.ca
---
If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.
The Progressive-Conservatives sold us out to the Americans with NAFTA (the new Conservatives aka Alliance aka Reform want to BE Americans). The Liberals are selling us out to the globalist captialists and the NDP are busy pretending that long discredited international socialism is still alive and well.
Then there are the lobby groups who pretend to represent the interests of the people they lobby for, but in actuality they lobby for their own bureaucratic self survival.
The people themselves are too apathetic and far to uninformed, even illinformed to have any ordinary citizen's opinion considered to be relevant to most issues. Instead, law makers ultimately resort to self appointed experts who have their own agenda and are most probably in somebody's pocket anyway.
Democracy simply does not work. Thomas Aquinas once called democracy a form of bad government where the people themselves become the tyrannt.
Canada needs to reform intself into a viable autocractic meritocracy where the law of the land is to do what's right for the nation and the people.
As far as democracy goes, I vote NO!
---
Dave Ruston
RUSSIA VOTES FOR PUTIN
1 Vladimir Putin: 71.2%
2 Nikolai Kharitonov: 13.7%
3 Sergei Glazyev: 4.1%
4 Irina Khakamada: 3.9%
5 Against all: 3.5%
6 Oleg Malyshkin: 2%
7 Sergei Mironov: 0.8%
#5 implies that Russians actually had a "None of the above" option they could choose. That would be a big improvement on not voting.
You've pretty much scripted life in Canada on a nutshell.
To be fair, the porta thoughties (stink tanks) I ridicule are really no different than the lobbying NGOs in that they each have an agenda. And they all are a symptom of our craving for a people driven government.
I absolutely agree with you on the issue of the I heart Canada, media savvy bunch not stepping up. But that may just be a sign that it's time for the Dave Ruston and the ordinary I'm a nobody Canadians to take control. I'm always wondering where are the intellectuals in Canada and the US? Why aren't they speaking out against the imbecillian policies of these governments? Our media has to accept some of this responsibility as well.
CBC is supposed to be our public broadcaster yet you never see Maude Barlow, Mel Hurtig, or Larry Gordon (FairVoteCanada) being interviewed on Politics.
It is not more democracy that we need in this country, but less. The current fad of pushing more and more democratic reform onto our institutions will only lead to more division and caos. The more opinion you allow on any given issue, the more difficult it becomes to arrive at a solution.
Ultimately, the more democratic you make the system the less effective it becomes and the more those charged with making decisions will be forced into the arms of the special interests, those being the large corporations, the unions, the lobby groups and the self appointed experts.
The feelings of western alienation will not be solved by an elected Senate or proportional representation in the House of Commons. The Maritimes will not cease to feel neglected and oppressed by Ottawa merely as a result of transfering more power to the provinces, and of course there is nothing anyone could ever do to stop the elites in Quebec from trying to force its way out of Confederation.
It is NOT democracy that we need but strong leadership. That is certainly not what we have in the current crop of political leaders. They all lack vision and a true understanding of where Canada needs to go in the future. Our current leaders are committed to more of what we are already doing, which is reducing our standard of living and enduring the dictates of Big Business (or Big Labour in the case of the irrelevant NDP) as if they alone understand how everything is to be properly done.
I suspect, however, that our political leaders already know this. They WANT a weak Canada so that Big Business can have a free hand (Liberals), or make it easier for Canada to join the US (Converatives) or become a socialist utopia (NDP). These guys have no interest in a strong Canada because it gets in the way of their own particular ideology.
Canada does not need this sort of thing. It needs strong, practical, workable, nationalist Canada-centric leadership.
---
Dave Ruston
---
Dave Ruston