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FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011
Voters, the time for listening is over.
IT’S TIME TO HAVE YOUR SAY. ❚ HOW YOU VOTE – AND WHY YOU SHOULD Page 16
❚ WE BREAK DOWN OUR FOUR LOCAL RIDINGS
Pages 14, 15
❚ DON’T LIKE OUR POLITICS? AT LEAST YOU DON’T LIVE IN U.S.
Page 16
❚ FULL ELECTION COVERAGE, LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY online at thenownewspaper.com
❚FEDERAL ELECTION
Why we need some serious political reform in Canada
I
Viewpoint
f the definition of idiocy is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results then, well, we are a nation of idiots. Michael Somewhere along BOOTH the line, the notion of representative government in this country has become severely warped. Instead of electing an individual to represent us in Ottawa, we get to choose who will represent Ottawa in our riding. Semantics perhaps? No, it’s a sad reflection of the pervasive rot that has come to dominate all levels of Canadian government: political parties
run amok. The parties call the shots and the MPs/MLAs/councillors are merely the means by which the party’s will is done. At the federal level, “representatives” have been reduced to glorified bobble head dolls, nodding inanely at everything uttered by their respective fearless leaders. Elected MPs have any sense of initiative beaten out of them and quickly become drooling zealots who cite the party line whenever they are questioned — Stephen said it, I believe it, that settles it. And they have to. The parliamentary culture fomented by the parties requires utmost loyalty if the MP in question has any aspirations of one day holding down a cabinet post. When
you are riding the gravy train, the cabinet is the dining car every MP dreams of. Just think: more pay, more staff and less accountability. There was a time when a cabinet minister was accountable for everything that happened in his/her portfolio. Not any more. As long as you do what the prime minister’s office directs, the only person you are accountable to is the party leader himself — unless you’re foolish enough to leave sensitive government documents at your mistress’s home. Roughly every four years (or four times in seven years as is the case with current outbreak of election fever), voters are asked to elect a “representative” for their riding. And that’s the last bit
of input ordinary citizens get until the electoral lawn signs sprout up again. Until then, the parties call the shots and we are supposed to accept that they can determine what’s in our best interests. But whose best interests are they acting on? The first rule in politics is get elected. The second rule? Stay elected. Those are the overriding guidelines that go into every decision made by our “representatives” and, as the Canadian democratic system has devolved in recent years, the interests of the political parties have taken precedence as MPs have become more beholden to them for their continued existence.
see DICTATORS page 4