Author: Rural

Electoral reform All the electoral reform in theworld, everybody getting out and voting, more partys represented inthe mix, even a better quality of representative will not make oneiota of difference if the current “if he said it, it must be wrong,If I say it, it must be right” confrontational, non

“It’s becoming increasingly evidentthat the Harper Conservatives dislike public accountability,”saidElizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the GreenParty.  “They are alreadylimitingdebate in the House on a regular basis, and nowthey intend to make committee business secret. “With their majority muscle, theConservatives can already pass whatever they want in committees. Theyare

In recent days much hasbeen said about MPLarry Millers comparing those that favor the gun registry to theHitler regime, whilst I think that in this casethere is no comparison its hard for someone who has alluded to suchcomparison when speaking about our current PM and his regime to beoverly critical.

With parliament onceagain back in session I am again fighting depression, its not thatthe attack on our democracy increases any more during these time butthat it receives greater attention and is far more obvious. We haveseen the statements by Minister Oliver and by PM Harper regarding theneed to ‘streamline’ environmental

Apparently there hasbeen an “Open Government Consultation” conducted byTreasury Board over the last couple of weeks. Whilst I am not up onsuch ‘consultations’ David Eaves is very much so, I will then hand itover to him in these extractsfrom a recent post at Eaves.ca. He tells usthat you can explore

Who is the enemy, you decide! In a sworn affidavit released Tuesday to TheCanadian Press, Andrew Frank says he was told by his supervisorat ForestEthics that a PMO official had referred to theirorganization as an “enemy of the state.” The affidavitdescribes how staff were told their jobs were at risk

In case you missed itRick Mercer latest “rant” once again says what others,myself included, say in a page full in just a few sentences, and onceagain he is right on the money. RicksRant as broadcast 17,01,2011 Democracyis very messy. In fact on paper it doesn’t even make a heck of alot

Itshard for someone blogging about democracy to ignore the recentefforts by our Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver to call intoquestion the perfectly legitimate concerns by both Canadian citizensand environmentalists from outside of Canada about the impacts of theproposed Northern Gateway Pipeline by calling such people “Radicals”and how “Theyuse funding from

Havingfinally gotten around to reading Samara’s report TheReal Outsiders: Politically Disengaged Views on Politics andDemocracy,published late last year I will give a brief synopsis of theirfindings along with my reaction to their findings. In their focusgroups from a variety of social economic backgrounds they comparedthose who considered themselves ‘engaged’ in

So says my tag line forthis blog and it is my belief that such dialog is fundamental to notonly democracy and governance but for the good of society in general. With that in mind formy first post of 2012 I will highlight a few of the variousorganizations, blogs and websites

  May you all be safe, happy and healthy during this season of celebration, giving & receiving. May 2012 bring equality, fulfillment, contentment  & true democracy to us all.

By now you have allseen the OCED report that says “The richest 1% of Canadians saw their share of total income increase from 8.1% in 1980 to13.3% in 2007”. It was this discrepancy along with the actualamount that the rich take home compared with the average working man.Recently questions are

Regular readers willknow that I refuse to use the phrase that links OUR Governmentdirectly with the leader of the Conservative party, preferring to usethe more accurate term when referring to that portion of governmentcoming under direct control of this dictatorial leader, that beingthe ‘Harper Regime’.  We must respect those thousands

Embassy Magazine(recently) broke the story thatall of Statistics Canada’s online data will not only be made free,but released under the Governmentof Canada’s Open Data License Agreement(updated and reviewed earlierthis week) that allows for commercial re-use. Theabove from Eaves.ca, he goes on to say (inpart)….. (T)here may betougher news on the

“There are two rules at thecentre of Parliamentary democracy. First, any politician given actualresponsibility must have an elected mandate. Second, government isaccountable to all politicians with an elected mandate. “ Sosays The Fifth Estate in a rebuttal to a recent article by JohnIvisin. In doing so he makea number of

“The floorcrossing tradition reflects the importance of preserving theindependence and mobility of members of Parliament to vote with theirfeet when they feel it is in the best interests of their constituentsor the country to do so.” And that is ex…