Time To Vote Independent

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Time To Vote Independent

“The Government Is The Servant Of The People And Not Its Master”
Winston Churchill, Oslo 1948

Is your elected representative, MP or MLA, working for you, working for the constituency, or working for his/her party?

My guess is that he/she is following the party line. The concerns within the riding which elected him/her are of second regard, it is the party interests that come first.

During Jean Chretien's three terms as Prime Minister, power was concentrated in the PMO. Parliamentary committees had very little influence. Backbench MPs had absolutely none. Paul Martin promised to change that and reform Parliament. Stephen Harper, who vowed to change the way politics is done in Ottawa, has done nothing, and by appearances, intends to keep on doing nothing.

From PARLIAMENTARIANS' VIEWS ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 2002
“All political parties represented in Parliament have, in one way or another, endorsed the need for parliamentary reform. While their approaches differ on key points, there are striking similarities among them. For example, most are in favour of an increase in the use of free votes, more autonomy for parliamentary committees to conduct policy research and public consultations, greater opportunities to question ministers about government bills or departmental estimates, more consultation with the government at earlier stages in the legislative process, and more serious consideration of Private Members’ Business and parliamentary appointments.”
"Citizens expect a greater voice and inclusion in public deliberation than is currently the case.

• Citizens are dissatisfied with the intermittent nature of their relationship with Parliamentarians. The rendezvous at the ballot box every four years is no longer sufficient. They are looking for something more responsive and continuous.
• Moreover, the public is underwhelmed by the current regime of consultation and engagement.
• Citizens do not want to provide dictates to Parliamentarians or governments – they want to provide advice. Also, they do not expect their advice to be taken at all times; rather, they want to be told how their advice was used. Feedback is critically important to the success of consultation.
• The public wants to provide input at the “values and principles” stages of debate, on the normative questions – not so much on the specifics of policies and programs.
• In short, citizens want public engagement to be representative, informed and reflective."

“While there was no consensus that our democratic system is in crisis, there was a shared sense that it is in poor health and losing the respect of citizens. Plummeting voter turn-outs, the concentration of power in the hands of Prime Ministers, Premiers and their advisers, the seeming irrelevance of parliament, the failure of our federal system to respond to the concerns of cities, and the younger generation’s disengagement from the conventional institutions of politics were all pointed to as part of the malaise.”

It is not those whom we elect, it's the Political Parties they gave their allegience to. It is very hard to get elected unless one runs under the banner of a party, the parties have made sure of that by setting the rules of elections in favor of political party candidates. Very few independents have any hope of being elected. Almost all of the independents elected to Parliament where one time members of a Political Party and where kicked out due to not following the party line.

I am sure that most individuals who seek public office were at the start, determined, and even promised, that they could make a difference; but, the party got in their way, crushed their ambitions and molded them into puppets of the “system”.

From The book; Rebuilding Canadian Party Politics
R. Kenneth Carty, William Cross, Lisa Young
“The very idea of a party system, and, more particularly, a series of them, focuses our attention on the character of individual political parties and the nature of their competitive relationships with one another. The most obvious characteristic of a party system is the number of parties and the nature of the issues that divide them. Together, these simple characteristics reveal much about the electoral choices that voters face, for the parties’ most basic tasks consist of nominating candidates and conducting campaigns on their behalf. And on these grounds there is a superficial case for saying that the Canadian party system has changed rather little since Confederation, given that the country’s first parties (the Liberals and Conservatives) have successfully persisted as little more than two great, sprawling, seemingly indistinguishable machines for vacuuming up votes.”

From PARLIAMENTARIANS' VIEWS ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 2002
“Parliamentarians feel that the House of Commons and the Senate are no longer places in which meaningful debate occurs. The impetus to get the government’s business through and the strongly enforced party discipline have combined to limit the number of voices heard in Parliament. In most matters of public debate, Canadians have many different points of view, while only a limited number of views are expressed within the walls of Parliament – largely as a result of party discipline. Parliament must put the richness of opinion that exists in the Canadian public to the service of the Canadian public by allowing for those multiple voices to be heard in Parliament.”

Enough Talk

Talk about Parliament Reform has been talked almost to death since the sixties, but that is all that happens; TALK and proposals all die in committee.

Think about it, if parliament was to reform and individual parliamentarians each had a voice and could bring their constituents concerns before government, what would be the need for political parties? Government would then become the servant of the people. Free votes in the house would mean the elected representatives would have to vote the will of their respective constituencies. The influence peddling of professional lobbyists would cease. Canada would actually become a true democracy. Wouldn't that be a change; citizens trusting in the government to work for the benefit of the nation instead of the highest bidder.

It won't happen

As long as political parties manage the House rules, the status quo will remain. Big business and big influence feed the parties and the parties feed big money, and that is what counts most with parliamentarians entrenched in the system. Show me a political scandal that hasn't had as it's root, money from some individual, buisiness or agency trying to influence policy.

The Conservatives aren't going to change. The Liberals aren't going to change. The NDP has proved as bad in any province they have managed. The Greens can only wish they they could have their turn at the trough. Whats that leave? Independent.

If your tired of being ignored.

If your fed up with scandals

If you truly want to make a difference.

Vote Independent

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