In the past I have often expounded on my feelings that even though we in Canada claim to be a democracy, I have the deeply held belief that our parliamentary system of public voting by members of Parliament and members of the legislative assembly has turned our governments into a parliamentary dictatorship. For years now I have held this belief and spent many hours discussing the topic with people from all of the major political parties.
In our present system, delegates are bullied into how they should vote by the caucus of the party to which they belong and, in essence, are nothing more than a bunch of puppets. They vote as they are told under the threat of expulsion from the party and endangerment of a future pension if they do not remain in favour with their party superiors. The only members who really have any say are those who happen to win the trust of the party politburo and gain a seat on the cabinet.
We cannot claim the process of telling members how they should vote in any way is a democratic principle. We also cannot claim the member is actually representing the people in their constituency when they are being yes men and good little boys and girls when they vote as they are told by the ruling few.
I have argued this point with a dear friend of mine, who spent many years in the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly as a representative. After many, long hours I did get him to admit that in truth, the voting system has contributed to the demise of democracy and the rise of a dictatorship.
His greatest observation was the system is so entrenched none of the political parties would even consider a change. He claimed to the present party system, change would bring a watering down of the power they all aspired to and that it would make it more difficult to get bills passed. My response is a true leader and representative in a democracy is there to serve rather than bask in power and glory. A true leader, as each of these members of Parliament or legislative assembly is, is there to serve the overall interests of his constituents. When they give up their right to do the proper thing and vote the way their conscience tells them is right for the people they represent, they have acted as a traitor to the people who voted for them. If secret ballots were held, the quality of the bills up for decision would be greatly improved and better serve all of our country's citizens.
At present any member who is not in the cabinet is tied up in chains and required to heel to their political master's whims. We send many representatives to our governmental assemblies who do little more than sit there and vote as they are told in the hopes that some day they may be allowed out of their kennels to actually speak their minds. Of what actual use are these people to us in society? Do they actually serve a purpose? At present, there is one Conservative member, Brian Trost, who is pushing to cut the chains on MPs and bring back some semblance of democracy. He believes all regular members need to quit blaming the prime minister's office from taking the power away from them and to admit that they have some responsibility in this. In a way, he is trying to work the troops of the back bench up to form a coalition (now there is a word Stephen Harper cringes at) of members who will lead the charge to return power to the realm of true democratic principles.
Let's hope the thugs who would conspire to quash this movement meet with some real backbone from our elected members. Let's hope we will see a new goal in our elected government to respect the people we have elected and realize we did not put them there to be mere puppets, but an actual part of the process to give us the best government for all of the people of Canada. Hey, maybe if this was to happen a lot more Canadians would see some reason to take some interest and voting numbers would rise to represent a truly engaged electorate.
Quote: "When politicians complain that television turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there and that television has merely demonstrated that all of the performers are not well trained." Edward R. Murrow
