OUR CURRENT ELECTORAL SYSTEM
I have, for a long time, been wanting to publicly
expose my feelings and strong views in this subject, but the
current events regarding the SPONSORSHIP ISSUE compelled me to wait
no longer. These events do not surprise me; however,
upset and disappoint me profoundly. They make me loose
faith in the Human race and especially in politicians in general, a
very dreadful sentiment to hold as one never knows who is going to
become the rotten apple.
There is not much we can do to remedy the past performance of
those TRANSGRESSERS, because they only took advantage of the
powers/directives given them by some elected officials.
What else could it be?
However, what we can do is, create a strong GRASSROOTS
MOVEMENT to change the useless system that allows these
events to happen, which has been used for a long time, but it is
completely useless and out of sync with the reality of today's
attitudes and way of life.
The following has been written sometime ago, but I strongly
believe there is no more appropriate time to publicize it than now,
hoping that it may aid the creation of a more suitable electoral
system.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that our present Electoral
Process contains good elements and presents itself in democratic
fashion, its practical operation produces and allows
various abuses; some inherent, others manufactured by
the lack of sound structure and accountability, leading to:
1.
Conflict of
Interests
2. Patronage/merit
3. Abusive Power/Undermined or
Misplaced Authority
4. Unaccountability and
Corruption (to mention just a few)
1. To start, the system grants
the electorate the right to vote without requiring from it any
financial contribution with the hope that the elected candidate
will represent them while in office. On the other hand
the parties run on financial donations by people ( party's
members), but most funding comes from businesses, Institutions,
Unions etc., which do so, expecting, in return, favorable
recompense. Both expect that the elected officials are
impartial. However, there is a time when the elected
official is placed in situations having to choose benefits between
the constituency electors that voted for them and the financial
benefactor who support their election expenditures.
Poor elected officials!… they have already sold their
souls to the devil even before the game began!
2.
Likewise, patronage is inevitable when placing personnel, acquiring
goods and/or services are needed by the Government those parties
that supported the candidate or the party itself is
going to be the one preferred.
If and when successfully elected, they go Ottawa, (Victoria,
etc.,) without the required knowledge/ experience
necessary to represent and effectively present their constituents
needs and aspirations. In most instances
they are forced to vote along party lines; otherwise
they are relegated to the back benches, from where none
exits, except at the next election time.
3. Thus, if one is lucky and
condescending enough to the party leader (Prime Minister),
may be appointed a Minister of some portfolio, but there
stands the Deputy Minister and other bureaucrats telling
him/her "what to do and how to do it". He becomes only a puppet.
This is not democracy nor a proper manner to represent
constituencies nor to govern.
REMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE OUR CURRENT ELECTORAL PROCESS
Since we are preparing to modify our (Democratic?) Electoral
Process, which, frankly is old, defective, broken, outdated and not
in tune with today's psychological, cultural and political core -
people's general attitudes. It is like a train, it
cannot run smoothly on an uneven and crocket truck. It
needs to be restructured from the bottom up. And for
that purpose, much consideration must be given and I would be very
willing and pleased to participate in the process.
I have some suggestions myself (for both the electoral process
and governance), which, given the opportunity, I would be pleased
to submit and glad to expand on, to illustrate some points and
offer various suggestions and recommendations that may help to
bring about some measures useful to improve the systems.
ELECTORAL PROCESS - present
Pitfalls-
a)
Campaign financing for Electoral Candidates
b) Lack
of knowledge for governing the required portfolios
(Ministers)
c) Lack of prescribed Re-calling
rights for both abuse and negligence/incompetence
d) No pre-set elections
dates
a) The
present system is not fair to Candidates, as it places them in a
conflict of interest position. They receive most of their campaign
funding from Businesses Corporations, Financial Institutions and
Unions to which they become politically/morally indebted, whereas
the votes come from the constituents, who, some times,
may have opposite interests. When situations with
conflicting interests occur, the elected official will be forced to
disloyalty.
To remedy the situation, each voter shall be obliged to
contribute, to the party of his/her choice, an annual
election fee of $x, sufficient to run elections and
relative administration expenses, and make
illegal an electoral or any other contribution to any candidate or
political party by non-individual
contributors. I believe that, say $20. yearly would
suffice, which is a very insignificant cost for such a
great benefit.
b) The elected officials and
Ministers of the various different portfolios (which names are
often changed but the functions are normally the same) are often
led and overridden by their deputies and other bureaucrats,
because, as the elected official may lack knowledge of the subject
matter and procedural process and therefore may have no confidence
to properly deal with very important subjects that affect all of
us.
Again to rectify the system, it would wise that aspiring
candidate be equipped with a degree or diploma from an
accredited Canadian University or College in at least in one
subject required to run one of the various portfolios of
the Government. (Every profession
requires a University degree. So should our
elected representative, in order to deserve our trust
and vote.
c) Right of recall - I believe
the implementation of a) and b) above would go a long way to
improve the current system, but this element will bring assurance
the official is elected to solely represent the interest of his/her
constituents, and if, with legitimate provable causes, he/she may
be called to answer for his actions or lack thereof.
d) Pre-set dates for elections
would remove the ability of incumbent governments to
Manipulate the elections timing to suit
their political agenda and circumstances, not the welfare of
the country.
The country and its people interests must be above the Political
Parties. They must exist to serve the country and its
people not themselves, as it is the PRESENT SYSTEM. As
it stands, neither the (bank benchers) elected officials nor the
electorate has any saying or influence on what is going on in
government. However, the electorate should also be knowledgeable
about the process and well informed of the candidates.
There should exist suitable training for all, starting in High
School.
POLITICAL PARTIES SHALL EXIST TO SERVICE VOTERS - NOT
THEMSELVES.
levelCMS