Saturday, February 25, 2006

Where does Canadian Democracy go from here.

Canadian democracy and the rights of Canadian voters is taking a real beating.
We may look back at 2006 and say that's when we should have stood up, that's when I should have done something.The David Emerson / Stephen Harper issue is a terrible example of how we are losing our Canadian democracy to a bunch of political control freaks.

David Emerson may be a great cabinet minister, he may end up being a good MP that represents his riding well, but for me that is not the point. The point is that our democracy allows a riding to elect a Liberal, and then 10 -14 days later end up with a Conservative.The problem is our democracy pretty much allows anything. A MP can switch parties, not based on not agreeing on policies , but just on any whim and his electorate can then be stuck with the issue for 4 years.

We don't get to upset because we have seen it before so no big deal right ? Wrong this is a fundamental disrespect and the decay of our democratic process. Maybe its just a matter of scale before we realize the issues behind this treachery.

Think about it, what if it wasn't just David Emerson, what if it was a mass switch. What if right after the election, the Bloc said, well we didn't get where we wanted to in this last election so its time to give up on the separation issue, and they decided to fold into the liberal party.That would change the party just elected by the Canadian electorate , it would give the liberals 154 seat versus124 for the conservatives.

Is this the way we want our democracy to run ? Do we want to allow parties and MPs to change our votes and election results according to what they want. I don't.

Lets get back to the basics.I want a Canada where I can vote for something I believe in and for some one who represents policies that I believe in. I then want them to go to Ottawa and take those ideas with them, I want them to fight for those ideas and policies. I don't want them to switch sides and betray my beliefs, I don't want them to just follow a leader and what he/she believes. I don't want them to follow the party line just because its good for the party.
If they want to change their beliefs then they owe me and explanation and a right to vote on that new belief as they are no longer an individual when in public office, they are my representative in Government.

We need a change, do your part by signing either of the two petitions and make your voices heard.
Tell Harper to Reverse this: http://www.petitiononline.com/PSH/petition.html
Recall Emerson: http://www.petitiononline.com/RDE/petition.html

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