Maybe its time for an election

FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, January 6, 2010
 

You may not have noticed, but the find of the day article for Ensign is the rant by CBC humourist Rick Mercer who presents a pretty good argument in condemnation of the Prime Minister of Canada to prorogue parliament. Though the prime minister has given various unconvincing reasons for his decision to suspend the parliament of Canada, there are a host of theories why he has carried out for a second time, what seems to be an irresponsible act for the leader of a free and democratic nation.

It disturbed me to read in the prestigious British Guardian, an article by Heather Malick titled Shafting democracy in Canada. This is not the way Canadians want to view their country and it is especially upsetting if people in other countries see us in this unfavourable light.

The very idea of representational democracy is that there is to be a government who has the responsibility of formulating and carrying out policy, but there must also be an opposition to oversee the actions of the government party. The actually day to day running of the government should always be in the hands of the civil servants and they in turn, are governed by the constitution and the courts of the Dominion. The whole process needs to be something of which the public is aware, so that from time to time, when they are asked to voice their opinion, they can vote, being properly informed. To make this all happen, there needs to be a free and independent press, a news gathering and evaluating system, that weighs the actions of the government and the opposition, the actions of the civil service and the thoroughness of the court system. All of this needs to function, for we Canadians to have an effective democratic system.

It would appear that the present minority prime minister does not either understand the system, or is determined to destroy it, there are many who advocate that one of these things is the case while there are many who believe that both are in effect. Be that as it may, by shutting down parliament the govern-ment of Canada is no longer a democratic process under the guidance and super-vision of those elected by the people of this country. We have a serious problem and have to accept the fact that both the government party and the opposition parties have failed the people of Canada.

With parliament prorogued, the supervisory and accountability of the government's actions are no longer being evaluated, because in many cases the secrecy of the government prevents anyone from knowing what is being done and what directions are being given to the civil service. We have known for several years that this Prime Minister and his party do not like the democratic process and have tried to avoid it at all costs, but the opposition has supported the government, keeping a minority in power, because the larger of the opposition parties is without an effective leader and can not expect to do well if an election were called.

Canadians, we have a mess on our hands and we need yet another election to punish this present prime minister and the opposition politicians who have kept him and his party in power. We can not blame the Conservative Party and its leader for the dysfunctionality of our Canadian democracy, but must realise that the Liberals, NDP and Bloc have each contributed to a situation that they should have been resolved.

I submit to you, that the present prime minister does not want to govern under the rules of the constitution and the structure of parliamentary democracy and for that reason alone, needs to be ejected from office. When parliament finally gets around to sitting, on the last day of March, they will bring forth yet another useless speech from the throne and then introduce yet another ridiculous budget. The first vote on the speech and or the budget should be conclusive and the undemocratic government lead by this prime minister must be thrown from office and an election called.

At that point it will be up to you, voters of Canada. You can re-elect a minority government, a majority government, or what ever you want, but you must brutally treat those in the house right now who have trampled on the traditions of this country and attempted to destroy the democracy of Canada.

 
 
Timothy W. Shire
 

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Editor : Timothy W. Shire
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