I'm 53 years of age. My first vote was for Pierre
Trudeau. I have basically not voted for anyone in any
government since 1988, because Brian Mulroney won that election
with a majority of seats despite not having the support of what's
called "the popular vote".
Canada is called a young country despite having one of the
oldest so-called democracies on the planet. Democracy
is supposed to be government by the people, for the people, who
have chosen a common set of moral beliefs and goals. Democracy is
supposed to be about politics. Politics is about
issues, conflict about issues, and finding mutually agreed
compromises for living together. Politics help to find
the ways in which all citizens are accommodated and included in our
society. This needs to be done now, not next
century.
But, Canada is not a democracy, never has been. Why
? After many years searching for an answer, I have
concluded that it is because democracy as we have known it, is not
about politics. It has been, and is, about
politicians. Politicians do what they do because their
job is to get elected, which means they basically do nothing else
except find ways to get elected, and re-elected. They
campaign to obtain the mandate to govern, but, never govern, except
in the interests of the very few, who pay the bills for campaigning
and getting elected.
To get elected, politicians must campaign, and campaigning costs
a lot of money. Basically only the candidates with the
most money get elected, and that means they must surrender their
mandate to govern to those who pay the campaign bills. Which is
who-ever has the most money. That is why politicians
never keep their campaign promises, except the ones we never hear
about which they make to those who pay the most money.
Most everybody knows this, after personal experience with a few
decades of so-called elections. The question is how to
fix Canada's democracy so that it really is democratic, and can be
depended on to remain so for the long term.My answer is to get rid
of election campaigns, get rid of politician elections, and get rid
of politicians. Citizens must vote directly on the
issues, every day, or at least every month, do not vote for
politicians once every 3 to 5 years. voting once every 3 to 5 years
on politicians is the worst enemy of democracy.
What to do instead of electing politicians ? Those people who
are chosen to see that our wishes are carried out, as far as
possible, must be chosen in much the same way as is done in the
private sector. They must train for the job, learn the
knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to do the jobs
required, and submit their resumes and applications to the
citizens, the people of Canada, to be chosen by vote.
If they fail to carry out their responsibilities, they are fired by
month's end, not in 3 to 5 years time, and no life-time pensions,
or golden parachutes, either.
This is my submission to the Assembly.
Thank you for considering it.
Stephen Hartwell,
Toronto, Canada