Education

It would be nice if our elementary and high schools had mandatory civics classes... junior parliaments and the like as a requirement of school. It really does take some education to run a proper democracy.

I also think it would be cool if some savvy political science professor got together with some organizers to host some free, practical civics and politics courses... maybe open air, in the summertime! Nothing too heavy, just elementary stuff so people have a strong practical idea of how government works, and most specifically, how government can be influenced, and how it is done by special interests of all kinds. Knowledge is power, after all, and "free" has such a nice ring to it!

passing the buck

I have had occasion to write to several MP's over several different issues and the longer they have been in power the quicker they pass the buck.I have never found them to be helpful but they always are quick to write back whenever an election is close.The lone exception was Bill Siksay of the NDP who actually did work trying to get gravestones for veterans at the mountainview cemetary.Like all things nothing was done in the end which means that men who fought for this country are resting in unmarked grave sites.I hope those dying in Afghanistan are being treated with more dignity.We already have plenty of evidence that our current government doesn't care about Canadians once they leave the country.That is unless there is a political gain to be had.Photo ops seem to count for more than life to Mr.Harper.

Secret Ballots in the House of Commons: Back to pre-1837

The problem we currently have is that our parliamentary based responsible government has become ineffective and theoretical because of the overlay of a presidential-like quasi-executive PMO and Cabinet. The remedy proposed is secret ballots on parliamentary votes. This, in my opinion would be curing the disease by killing the patient. It would be transferring the lack of accountability that the PMO and the Cabinet have to the House of Commons directly to the electorate. The individual members would lose all accountability to their electors. The reason given for this is that it would "free" MPs from party discipline. I think it would do the opposite. MPs could be elected on a platform, but could never be held accountable for implementing it, never be accountable for how they stood on an issue. Effectively, we would return to the pre-1837 days of the Family Compact. It also unfairly targets the party system as a problem: beware of unwanted consequences when "solving" a problem unless it can be illustrated that it really 'is' a problem.
It's proposed that the easy way is to make parliamentary votes into secret votes and that the hard way is to come to a system of proportional representation. I agree with a system of proportionality, but I think that it is not directly at the centre of the current issue of prorogation. It is related and I agree that proportional representation would greatly help in re-balancing our democracy, but prorogation - or more particularly the abuse of the right to ask the Governor-General for prorogation - is something that the House of Commons can deal with without a full re-structuring.
We have to keep the pressure on that this happens. The NDP have said that they will present something to the House. They have yet to indicate or release what that is. The Liberals, to their credit, have released a position, but it is very inadequately full of loopholes so that it effectively maintains the status-quo - with one significant and important addition: the continuation of parliamentary committees during prorogation.

Do away with Paries

I agree with samuidave. The best solution would be to do away with all political parties, even the one I usually vote for. That would make the our politicians directly accountable to us, not their leaders.

Since that is not going to happens without the kind of opposition the Americans are now facing against health care reform, the next best solution is a secret ballot. In the end that might just accomplish the same end, and do away with the obstructionist political party system we now endure.

The third option, proportional representation, is not going to happen for a long time, and even if it does, it is just continuing the problems that we now face. In the end this option would accomplish little to fix the problems we now have.

I go for option 1.

An educated public

I most certainly agree that our system is broken but I strongly reject the idea the 'proportional representation' would do anything to fix it. I see no evidence from countries where it is implemented that indicates a great increase in the number of people who bother to vote, nor any significant increase in electorate satisfaction with government policy. Secondly if we who read and write here can understand what makes us think others could not. It reminds me of the idea of women being denied the vote due to their inability to comprehend. What we need is a chance to exercise our vote where it really counts. Let each party present a budget and allow us to choose the one we want. See how many people vote and make us live with our choices.

Prorogue unsustainable aboriginal subsidies

In view of Canada's growing number of people with disabilities, including many injured workers who somehow - but how, exactly? - increasingly fail to qualify for WCB benefits, it's time to prorogue not Parliament but the unsustainable funding of aboriginals, who don't contibute to the public treasury.

Here's a two-stage proposal to help things along:

1. First, issue a deadline for the settlement of any outstanding land claims after which only those of us who do contribute to the public treasury may compete for programs and subsidies available equally to all qualified applicants, and

2. Resolve never, ever again to create, subsidize or participate in any program or service intended exclusively to benefit aboriginals. We can't afford the inevitable lawsuits when a recipient/beneficiary is somehow disappointed or injured, and it's clear Canada is incompetent to run any such program effectively. Let's stop trying.

In my view, the residential school settlements, which even at this early stage have already pretty much taken out organized religion in Canada, must signal the end of a miserable relationship of enforced dependance created by an ancient document, the Royal Proclamation of 1763, whose drafters could not possibly have contemplated the obligations it's created for successive generations of taxpayers. Surely there was an expectation that after a reasonable period of war reparations, recipients would become self-sufficient as settlers did or did not, as the case may be. Nowhere in history have conquerors assumed such massive obligations for an indefinite period.

ASKBiblitz, We are all,

ASKBiblitz, We are all, right now, in actual fact, being subsidized heavily by the aboriginal peoples whom we stole this land from. For 10,000 they lived on the land we make our living from and kept it whole.

Now we are gaining what we imaging to be "wealth" by destroying much of that heritage they left us.

Your comment is, therefore, pig-ignorant, offensive, and deeply racist.

Interesting idea Rafe

First to EDH. I have worked elections in the past, and there is no way anyone knows who voted what unless only one person voted at a particular poll or every ballot cast at a poll was for the same candidate.

The secret ballot for both MPs and MLAs would work as long as we are stuck with the party system. But there should also be some sort of proportional representation. We should never be in a position where we in effect elect a dictator, and at present any time we elect a majority, we do so.

The problem is that the electorate does not choose how we are governed. The rules we live by are those set down by those that run the asylum.

I still prefer that political parties be outlawed. They are really nothing more than gangbangers in suits. Think about it, a political party has a leader as does a gang. MPs/MLAs suck up to the leader to advance their standing in the party/gang. Political parties have whips and gangs have enforcers to keep the make sure the subordinates toe the line. Political parties are not above coercion and intimidation to get their way, as are gangs. Etc., etc.

As things sit now, the electorate has about as much influence on its governance as the slaves did many years ago. Virtually none!