Proposal For New Political Party: The Democracy Party Of Canada

It’s becoming more and more clear that the traditional approach is failing. Decades of partisanship, corruption and self interest has taken it’s toll on our democracy. There is no party which represents the majority of Canadians. We got five parties that claim more than 9% of the vote (and none of them have much more than 30%). The slightly larger group gets power over the other 2/3rds. This is not democracy.

Voters have to pick between packages of policies. They may like policies from several different parties, but they can only pick one party. It’s similar to the way cable provides give you options in blocks or tiers without giving you the option of picking individual channels.

Democratic policy making is further distorted by the way votes are tied to geography (ridings). Ten percent of the vote does not translate into 10% of the seats in parliament. This is how the Bloq gets 48 seats while the Green Party has none despite the fact that the Greens have more votes nationally.

Fixing this problem via reforming our system is proving to be difficult (to say the least). There is another option: start a democratic party. The Party would develop it’s policies using democratic mechanisms such as voting or polling regular Canadians. I realize parties have “democratic” measures in place already, such as voting for leaders, but they’re limited to party members. I’m talking about using democratic techniques to develop policies in detail. For example, a poll or vote would be conducted (among regular  voters, not party members) to determine if money should be spent on infrastructure. Then a follow up poll (or vote) might be conducted to determine how much.

Such a party should avoid placing itself on the left-right scale. The left-right scale is useless because it doesn’t tell you anything about party policy. Parties are “left” on some issues and “right” on others. The left-right scale encourages partisanship when we should be concerned about co-operation.

Now I would think that such a party would be an instant hit, with all it’s policies being determined by public opinion, however I am not naive enough to believe politics is all about policy. It seems to me that too many people treat it like sports and root for there favorite team without letting any logic enter their decision making process. I’d like to be proved wrong.

I See Harper’s Busy With The Budget

Of his many excuses for proroguing parliament, the most common one was to give Conservatives time to work on the budget. Obviously having the house in session was too much of a distraction (despite other budgets in Canadian history being drafted while the house was in session).

Well it’s good to see that he’s using the extra time he bought the Conservatives to work on the budget wisely by interviewing hockey players.

If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll know the following things are of higher priority than a sitting house of democratically elected MPs representing Canadian Citizens:

• the markets
• the Olympics
• hockey

Well played Mr. Harper. Well played. You need to keep the support of sports fans and investors.

I might like the guy if had become a sportscaster instead of a politician.

You’re Only Here For The Ride

You’re only here for the short term. That’s all you’ve got. Use your time wisely. Don’t give it to those who promise the impossible: eternal life. They promise what they cannot deliver, but by the time you discover that, it’s too late and your not alive anymore to contest it. It’s the ultimate contract: you hold up your end of the deal, and they don’t have to hold up theirs, because your DEAD.

In ordinarily law, this would be illegal. But of course we must make a distinction between cult and religion (the only real difference is size). It’s okay for a mainstream religion to teach children that they are born unworthy (original sin) and thus must rely on self appointed authority (who claim can hear God’s voice, without having to demonstrate it)  to feel worthy. It’s pathetic preying on children’s innocent minds that propagates religion.

Life is the ultimate gift reality has given us through the phenomenons of physics, chemistry, abiogenesis and natural selection. Greed, of course, has lead to some making claim to the nature of reality. They do this to gain control over human minds. They will make the claim that they have inside knowledge. Since they can’t prove this, they invoke “faith”, which is another way of saying “believe me, just because I say so, and if you don’t, you’ll be punished after death”. And if you do believe them, you’ll benefit from the promise of eternal reward in heaven. Of course, no-one has ever come back from the dead to confirm these claims (except for Jesus, a character from a novel of fiction called “The Bible”).

Oh well, if an omnibenevolent, omnipotent being exists, we’ve got nothing to worry about. He can’t blame people for not believing since he hasn’t revealed himself. And even if other people have claimed that he has, he can’t blame us for not believing, since it is human nature to lie. He is all powerful, and could reveal himself at anytime to us non-believers. Since he is omnibenevolent, He should care about us in the end, even if we didn’t believe. He would know our reason for doubt. Really, an all knowing, intelligent being would respect intellect more than faith. A defence based on logic is better than blind obedience (unless of course He’s a petty dictator).

To theists: If you must drink the poison, don’t look at me in disgust for not doing the same. Go ahead and drink the poison if that’s what you feel is “right”. Don’t expect me to follow.

Once your dead, your dead forever. I only wish there was a special kind of hell for these mind manipulators to go to ….

Proroguing To Avoid Political Problems: A New Canadian Tradition?

It has been claimed that prorogation is common in Canadian parliament. That’s true, but it’s usually only done when the government is done it’s agenda for the session. And consent of the house is usually achieved. Harper has used prorogation twice in just over a year to avoid facing his responsibilities as PM. The only other PM to do this was John A. Macdonald.

Let’s Not Be Too “Elitist”

Here is the letter that Conservatives feel is too “elitist”. Of course they would. They don’t want here from those who really understand how our Westminster system works, and certainly not those who point out how Harper is being under handedly undemocratic.

Did Conservatives forget:

Oh right! He doesn’t mention anything about the Prime Minister being accountable to the citizens or the MPs that would sit in the House of Commons.

Democracy Put On Hold To Appease Stock Traders

According to Harper, a sitting Parliament causes market instability for Canada, and that is enough reason halt it. Funny how he let the house sit for most (and I stress the word “most”, we all remember fall of 2008) of the last 4 years he was in office.

If this is his honest answer for why he prorogued Parliament, he is putting us on a dangerous path where democracy can be sold. If there’s a profit to be made, democracy can be put on hold. Money is apparently more important than living in a democracy and a free society.

He explains that when the Parliament is sitting, Canada’s stability is threatened because he might face a defeated government and an election. Oh really?! Your scared of getting the majority government your supporters insist that you’ll get next election? Wouldn’t that give Canada more stability?

Is this an extraordinary time that requires extraordinary measures to save the economy (if it were, it wouldn’t excuse him)? Well didn’t he just say that the economy is recovering? Of course he doesn’t really know that anymore than when he said we would not go into a recession (right after major banks collapsed) and we won’t have a deficit (some expert economist he is).

The real reason for the prorogue is to avoid criticism and opposition. That is anti-democratic.

If You Want To Be Heard, Don’t Make A Sound: CPC

I’ve known for quite a while that the Conservative Party holds contempt for democracy. But it’s still shocking when you hear them come out and say it, especially with a minority government. Can you imagine how scary it would be if they held a majority?

Today, Tony Clement said “we’re not here to govern on behalf of the chattering classes”. In other words, the current government believes it can disregard the opinions of those capable of expressing intelligent thought. By shutting out voices, they are refusing to perform their duty as elected officials: representing citizens.

In addition to this statement, he refered to academics as “elites”, thumbing his nose at them and pandering to his support base. Tony just alienated any academics in his support base, but he knows he can afford it. There aren’t too many of them.

If you are tired of watching the CPC evade democracy, join the Facebook group and find the rally in your city.

At Least 5% Don’t Care for Democracy

According to EKOS poll, out of those who are aware of Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue parliament, 58% oppose the move and 63% think the move is undemocratic. Hmmm. That means AT LEAST 5% of those who are aware of the prorogation thinks it’s undemocratic and don’t care or even support undemocratic action. Of course, this number could be higher given that there may be a portion of those who oppose the move but DON’T think it’s undemocratic. That portion, which is unknown to those without access to the original data, would add on to the 5%.

So there we have it, at least 1 out of 20 people who follow politics wouldn’t mind being ruled by a dictator. I’ll leave it as an excercise to the reader to figure out what their political stripe is.

Do You Trust People Who Issue Death Threats?

What do you do when you don’t like what the data shows. Well, you could do your own research. But when that fails you can try:
- pretending legitimate interpretations of data is somehow nefarious
- character assassination
- straw man arguments
- lying about reports being suppressed
- exposing personal opinions expressed in private
- making cheesy Internet videos (the Palin’s of this world will swallow it whole)
- if all else fails, there’s always death threats:

Yep, I’m sure that those who issue death threats have our best interests at heart.

Prosperous Days For The Rulers Of Simpletons

A storm of activity has been going on the Internet for a couple of weeks, and it’s drowning out rational thought. All the memes and rhetoric are being repeated by those who don’t give a second thought to what they’re saying. Some of them may be experts in shaping a message (Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh) but they are certainly not experts in anything to do with Science or reality. In fact, their goal is to manipulate minds into perceiving reality in a distorted way. They appeal to simplicity.

This fiasco is lending to a distrust in Science. I expect Creationists and Inteligent Designers to use this to their full advantage, all the while continuing to use their smart phones and computers despite their distrust in Science.