Cornwall Ontario– I know commentary is supposed to trigger a reaction in the media. We pundits, columnists, and editorial scribblers can even handle when response isn’t favorable, but Bill Kingston’s mouth farts today on our local Corus radio station bring up those little bits of pre-vomit as Mr. Kingston attacked Conservative MP Michael Chong’s private member bill; The Reform Act.
The principal of the act is to give more power to the elected and electing. It creates bars that are more easily attained to replace a party leader and even allow local riding associations to choose their own candidates.
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…allowing riding associations to pick their candidate rather than the party leader. What’s to say a bush-league riding association picks a candidate that doesn’t align with the party ideals and vision – another dangerous road to go down.
What exactly would be wrong with a candidate that doesn’t agree with each and every tenet of a party? That’s utterly ridiculous!
The Reform Act is one of the most exciting pieces of Democracy Canada has seen in a generation. It deserves to be fully debated; maybe even amended; but at the end of the day it’s a chance to clearly and truly give the public a reason to get more involved with the political process as the current hyper partisan party politics drives people away and creates more political apathy.
Bill; get with the program and stop drinking the kool aid! What do you have against Democracy anyway?
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But good golly. I agree with Bill Kingston. Now what? Regarding Chong and his piece-meal reform bill. He feels MP’s don’t have enough power. M.P’s do have a voice. They can speak. They can vote. They can break ranks. They are trying to toss out the Senate so they can have emotional, knee-jerk reactions on changing legislation. They can vote their conscience. They vote on laws…regular Canadian citizens aren’t allowed to vote on laws. M.P.’s can cross the floor. They can ride the bus and use sidewalks. They can write papers. They have assistants and offices. They can bring issues to our attention. They can visit their Riding Association. They seem to have a great deal more power than the rest of us because they do and it’s entrenched. It’s not like the public votes on laws. It’s not a like a single MP bothered to protest to the Governor General about Parliament being pro-rogued. No, give them nothing that they ask for. The House of Commons will use it against the Canadian people.
Remember when we voted on the 1991 Economic proposals? Canadians voted it down in a land slide. Be a long time before Members of Parliament allow a Canadian to vote on a law again, I bet eh.
I understand that the first job of a politician is to get elected, you know ‘science as a vocation’ a la Max Weber but I would like them to be less concerned about re-election. Chong’s heart may be in the right place but I’d rather see sixteen year olds lining up for the ballot box and voting booth before I say yes to handing over even more power. Seventeen year olds can join the army. Sixteen year olds can decide how to drive a car. If they are adult enough to be arrested for non-violent crimes, they are certainly old enough to vote. Let them vote. It will raise the political IQ of the average household.
These laws will affect them for a life time. Almost 40% of adults don’t vote. Let the teens have the franchise that adults are abandoning. There is greater merit to letting 16 year olds vote than their is in Mr. Chong’s bill. That’s how I see it. Our kids are valid. No more power for the elite. Election Canada did a study on the subject a generation ago. Time for a re-visit, a lot has changed…like the omnibus war on youth. No, the MP’s that are asking for this are the same ones that have let you down for a life time. Too bad we can’t vote on it. But that’s crappy democracy.
http://www.elections.ca/res/eim/article_search/article.asp?id=54&lang=e&frmPageSize=
@ Roy Berger: How is it, then, that Conservative MPs daren’t speak their mind or wander from PMO scripts for fear of being stripped of their cabinet post (Michael Chong), thrown out of caucus (Bill Casey), facing Harper’s wrath or being chewed out by the Harper Youth (“boys in short pants”) in the PMO? Regardless of party, how did the well-worn notion of MPs acting like trained seals come into being?
As to suggesting MPs risk having too much power, what does that say of the constituents who elect them? Do they have to play along and act like sheep? At bottom, who holds the cards in a democracy? The people with their power of the vote, surely.
The way things are today, parliamentary democracy in Canada is a farce. Michael Chong’s Reform Act is designed (see my LTE to CFN) to make democracy more responsible and responsive to the will of the people. How can that not be a worthy goal?
@ PJ. If you’re scooping a six figure paycheck, plus perks and expenses, why would you piss off your boss?
@ Furtz: Too true, I suspect, of too many of the knee-jerk hand-clapping variety.