Democracy is eroded in Canada. The media shows glimmers of understanding the threat to democracy, but then let up and treat everything as normal, so Canadians calm down and go about their daily chores pleased to kick a reckoning down the road.
https://twitter.com/acoyne/statuses/277111975845187584
The book proposes a solution. Canada should follow the lead of its sister Commonwealth countries Britain, Australia and New Zealand and codify the principles of parliamentary democracy to ensure the players — voters and politicians — understand the playbook and stay within the rules.
“The other systems have rules about prorogation and dissolution, especially dissolution,” said Turnbull. “And a lot of other systems don’t use prorogation at all. They just have a parliamentary calendar.” Unlike prorogation and dissolution, a parliamentary calendar levels the playing field, binding government and opposition equally.
The current occupant of 24 Sussex has unleashed a torrent of deliberate misinformation about the tenets of parliamentary democracy in his amazingly successful drive to further confuse Canadians about the manner and traditions of their form of government.
Canadians don’t elect a government or a prime minister. They elect a Parliament. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has described the parties who form Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition as “losers”.
Misinformation has been flowing from the Conservatives’ senior ministers since at least 2008, as you can see here:
More recently you can watch a senior minister being schooled by a PMO lackey on how to lie on camera. The media points out the deception, but will go on to invite the lying scum onto the program again as if it didn’t happen.
As a result we get legislation that is a long way off from what people want or even expect (Remember “Made in Canada”?). It certainly isn’t what the governing party promised during their election campaigns. The token changes to GST, and tax credits may fool a few thousand, but the bigger issues that remove power from the Canadian electorate and Members of Parliament go unnoticed by people too busy and uneducated to recognize or respond to the threats to their country and their peace.
It has some fine Canadians vowing to be Idle No More.
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 
Canada is rotten to the core with corruption. Especially since Harper’s, so called majority. The vast majority of Canadians say, Harper cheated to win the election, with his robo-call cheat. Now Harper is fighting tooth and nail, to prevent Politicians and Canadians of their, rightful election wins and votes. Harper is terrified he will lost the majority, he cheated so hard to get. Harper knows, he will never win another election, without cheating again.
ICC’s Chief Prosecutor found Harper guilty of, stonewalling and hiding evidence on, the torture of the detainees. ICC left it up to the RCMP, to pursue Harper’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. Of course, the RCMP didn’t do so. Harper prorogued Parliament, so he wouldn’t have to answer to his crimes. Such as a Dictatorship leader, always does.
I am amazed the Common Wealth country’s aren’t denouncing Harper, at the top of their voices. Harper giving Canada to Communist China, is being condoned by the Common Wealth. One Common Wealth country did write sometime back though…How badly Harper is destroying Democracy in Canada. Canadians went to war for England, so we wouldn’t have, Fascism, Communism nor Dictatorship in our country.
Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, lied, deceived, thieved, were corrupt. They used, dirty tactics, dirty politics and they all cheated to win. Sound familiar? It should.
Lets see, democracy was at risk when PET invoked the War Measures Act, the opposition and the media claimed this was the end of Canada as we know it. Then, a few years later we were warned about democracy coming to a crashing end with Mulroney’s Free Trade and with the Goods and Services tax. Then, Chretien was the big bad wolf when he raided the EI fund and the PS’s Pension Fund and when he downloaded Health Care to the provinces…he cut off debate on every occasion. Now its Harpers turn. It gets old and tiresome. Its almost as old and tiresome as the Global Cooling scare in the mid 70’s. We elect our government, and, if we dont like them we kick them out. No one is stealing your democracy. Trudeau wasnt, Mulroney wasnt, Chretien wasnt and Harper isnt.
I’m not an expert in debate, but I don’t think you can win by pointing out how Canadian parliamentary democracy has been eroded, which is my opening point, and not even refute my other points. Then you conclude the opposite of what the evidence suggests, just because you ‘feel’ free and democratic now.
Toss in a Global Cooling red herring for fun, and you’ve got a nonsense rant.
Just because you ‘feel’ oppressed and marginalized now also doesn’t the case make!
I think what Bill was pointing out is that no democracy is perfect and that these imperfections have been with us for a very long time. Sadly the youth of today are ignorant of the past, for them this is brand spankin’ new. Yes, yes, yes the socialist democracy is perfect although that’s in the twinkle of the socialist eye!
Bill, these kids have been brought up in a pampered lifestyle where riches are beyond the belief of what any of us were raised with. For them this Greenlibdipp defeat has been the first instance where they have had to face the ugly reality that they aren’t always going to get their way. For many of the precious snowflakes they didn’t get their participation trophy… this unprecidented disturbance in ‘The Force’ is being dealt with in the only way they know how… by pouting!!! ;)
Actually RedJefff, legitimacy has a lot to do with the feelings the public has about the power used on them by the state.
Things have been bad a long time, and Harper’s abuses show no sign of improvement. In fact, they are new lows that even our corporate MSM points out with increasing frequency. You wouldn’t have found earlier governments accused in the Nat Po of “electoral fraud” as the Conservatives have been, for instance.
The War Measures Act WAS an assault on democracy. I don’t think ANYBODY accused Mulroney of violating Canadian parliamentary tradition (although Erik “velcro-lips” Nielson displayed a cynical contempt for the debate).
I don’t think you’ll find anyone who’ll disagree that Chretien’s behaviour was arrogant and often almost arbitrary. More, that Chretien’s behaviour dulled our sense of outrage and made harper’s abuses more possible.
But you, evidently, can’t grasp that what is left of the power of our representative democracy after harper is finished with it, is no power at all. You really ought to study the issues before you open your gob to speak.
Billg, you are old and tiresome. Your rhetoric is familiar and does not lead to a better place, simply more and worse of the same thing.
It may be “old and tiresome” but it isn’t wrong. Avoiding dealing with the cracks in the Quebec dominated national socialist party’s platform or ideology won’t change that.
Your fascination with NDP support in Quebec is obviously an obsession for you, RedJefff. You bring it up almost as much as some other Con-trolls bring up David Suzuki, or if this was 4 years ago, Dion. You see the country changing because Quebec elects NDP MPs? As a westerner, I really couldn’t give a fig.
A regional party looking out for a small region really doesn’t speak as a national voice for the rest of Canada.
PS… other than deflecting the issue, is Pukezuki or Dion of any importance to your arguement?
Some might argue that we were never intended to truly have such a thing and that LaFontaine and Baldwin got “responsible government” by some fluke of what might now be called (by would-be tyrants of the modern age) “mismanagement”.
Whether or not that theory holds any water at all is up to the individual observer, but if it was a fluke, it’s one the more sensible of us have been working to build upon for over a century and a half now. It seems worth continuing that work and fighting off the would-be saboteurs.
Pingback: Do You Wonder Why Roadblocks Required? | Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff
Pingback: The Challenge of Giving the People Democracy | pushinback