Our freedoms of belief, conscience expression, and thought are of little value if they do not lead to robust public debate on all issues relevant to our society
Political parties are intent on using pollsters,
and focus groups, to measure the mood of the public and intently scrutinize
results to see how it might affect policies they adopt. Fair enough … governments and opposition
parties are elected to serve the people, but with 338 elected members in the
House of Commons, one would expect that they have a finger on the pulse of the
public they serve. However, we should be
wary of political parties being heavily influenced by polling results, rather
then listening to their representatives.
That leads to a second problem … risk aversion.
Political parties are wary of any policy or political decision that might cost
them support and votes. One group they are concerned with though are the voices
of lobbyists and pressure groups – the ones that do not represent mainstream
society. Their fear of minorities leads to risk aversion and increases
paralysis. The reverse is also true as politicians seem to be serving the
interests of minorities rather than the mainstream.
The third indicator is a universal fear of
controversy, which leads to censorship; controversial issues are shunned. When
Liberal backbencher Iqra Khalid tabled motion M-103 (the anti-islamophobia
motion) many were surprised that the Liberal Party came out in full support. The Motion was controversial and had stirred
considerable debate in the media, and in public. As long as the motion was
before the House of Commons, controversy would continue. By supporting the
motion and getting it passed, the government effectively stifled debate and is
under no obligation to act on the Motion. The Motion will now gather dust.
The same tactic was used to deal with pipeline
construction. Energy East was choked off by the government continually raising
the bar for construction approval. Eventually investors and contractors withdrew,
tired of silly games and took billion in investments with them. Trans Mountain
proved more difficult, so the government bought it. Now it seems there is no visible plan for
completing the extension, or for removing the regulatory chaos that led to
frivolous law suits and legal chaos.
The forth factor is a ‘them and us’ mentality, where copious energy and time is devoted to
battling other political parties rather than serving the public. Governments
are secretive, pretending that they are plotting again their opponents. They
have forgotten that they are in the legislature, or parliament to represent
Canadians, not to play war games with one another.
Our freedoms of belief, conscience, expression and
thought are of little value if they do not lead to robust public debate on all
issues relevant to our society. No one, nor any group should be able to
dominate debate and discussion of any issue.
That is of particular significance in our
legislatures and parliament. Every MLA, MNA, MP and MPP must have a full voice
in his or her party, and in the legislature or parliament they are elected to.
That is why they are there … to represent the people who elected them, not to
carry out the plans of the governing cabinet or party officials. They exist to
guard against legislation which is not in the interests of all Canadians, and
to offer better solutions to problems our governments face.
There can be no back-benchers in a democratic
government. If we allow division of representatives, we fail democracy.
Appointment to a cabinet post is not an appointment to power; it is an
appointment to specific responsibility in governance along with the duties and
accountability for that office.
Forming a government does not include a Royal
prerogative. We took care of that nonsense 800 years ago with enactment of the
Magna Carta.
John Feldsted
Political Consultant
& Strategist
Winnipeg,
Manitoba
I only disagree with the 'Magna Carta' line. The nobility managed to get a meagre bit of power away from the king and to this day, we still work to pay a monarch. Our freedom is far from carrying the guarantees of our southern neighbours. That said, we have the ability to shrug off the chains, just not the determination.
ReplyDeleteWe still work to pay the government for sure -- and it's more and more every year. That's because the majority don't want to shrug off their chains -- or at least they don't understand and realize that the more they demand of government, the more they'll take from us in taxes and fees.
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