Its not the institution, its the self serving and partisan people appointed to it…. Recent events have once again brought calls for the senate to be abolished or reformed and whilst the latter is no doubt needed, the former is not IMHO on the cards if for no other reason
Continue readingTag: Legislative Process
Democracy Under Fire: Getting their attention…
Much has been written about the Idle No More movement in recent weeks and I will not attempt to define it here for like the Occupy Movement before it the focus of the protests is becoming increasingly unclear. For Chief Spence it seems to be about conditions in her, and
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Elizabeth May: Parliamentarian of the Year.
When it comes to choosing MP’s who have earned special recognition for their contributions in the House the choices, in my opinion, are somewhat limited however that Elisabeth May has been voted Parliamentarian of the Yearby her peers clearly indicates her commitment to serving her constituents and Canada as a
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: A Western Point of View
A guest post by Jared Milne.When the federal Liberals governed Canada, Albertans were often frustrated by what they saw as pork-barrelling, a lack of transparency in government, few checks on the prime minister’s powers, and the demonizing of people …
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: A Week of Unaccountability
I make no effort in these pages to opinionate on things as they happen, even when limited to just attacks upon democracy it would be more than a full time job, I do try and shed some light upon such issues after the fact and highlight areas where future actions
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Pro-rogue – In favor of – unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable?
I don’t often write about the Provincial government for two reasons:- 1) there is enough anti democratic stuff going on at the federal level to keep me and a truck load of scribes employed full time just keeping up. 2) In comparison the Ontario legislature until recently has been relatively
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: ‘Democracy no longer enters into it’
This week I will let a few other commentators speak to the condition of our democracy and the Harper regimes ongoing disdain for opposing views, parliamentary process, the taxpayers, and that promised open and accountable thing!. First up Rick Mercer regarding the probability of yet another Omnibus budget billon its
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Participative Democracy in Canada
A few weeks ago I became aware of the Online Party of Canada, a new political party which attempts to introduce ‘Participative Democracy’.to Canada. Their mission is “to create a viable alternative to the traditional political system, using internet technology. Online Voting, Participative Democracy, Competence, Transparency and Accountability”, by “re-posting
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: In Search of Heroes
I am a little rushed this week an so will simply republish this article by Elizabeth May who is far better qualified to speak about such matters than I. On Wednesday, June 13th, just after Question Period and before the tabling of amendments to the Omnibus Budget Bill C-38, a
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Scrutinizing government Expenditures.
Members of Parliament receive conflicting, outdated information about how billions of tax dollars are being spent each year, and get little opportunity to review fiscal plans. Those are some of the findings in a Commons report released without fanfare recently, even as opposition MPs railed against the Harper government for
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: PMO v PBO, who will be next?
We all realize by now that nobody really knows what the financial and social impacts of the Harper regimes omnibus Buget and departmental cuts are going to be, and that includes King Harper and his retinue of script readers. For some time now our fearless Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: This is NOT Democracy
The Opposition pushback over Bill C-38 — driven in part by the Green Party caucus of one, Elizabeth May — is about far more than political partisanship. It’s about whether Parliament can prevent being pushed into complete irrelevance by a government which abuses its power. Andrew Coyne, June 14 2012.
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: You wont recognize Canada
You wont recognize Canada or Parliament by the time Mr Harper and his oligarchical regime is done, that’s not news but is now reality. What I fear most is that we will become a democracy in name only and that any semblance of us being a ‘Representative Democracy’ will just
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Canada’s Sad "Democracy"
The Sixth Estate summarizes the basis of this post which highlights just how far we have drifted, or more corrected been steered, away from true democratic representation. Backbench MP opposes government — for a couple of hours — The Honourable Member for Kootenay-Columbia, David Wilks, earned his honorific bypublicly stating
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: How can members represent their constituents?
We here, along with a number of other concerned Canadians have been pointing out the escalating decline of our democratic institutions, our access to accurate and timely information, the increasingly partisan rhetoric and actions that signals that Canadian Democracy is in real trouble for some time now. Whilst no party,
Continue reading