My interest in electoral reform springs from sociological
concerns and the predictable effect of having the elite determine
the public's fate. Were the public responsible for deciding the
general moral direction of the nation there'd be no
fear-of-strangers programming, no overt militarization of women, no
cooperation in preemptive wars of imperialism disguised as
peacemaking, no domestic rise of police state fascism with its vast
covert army of vigilante informants all of which are unfolding
today in Canada in order to appease the personal interests of the
privileged. And it's simply because the public has the common sense
to know that it's the inevitable victim of these raw expediency
strategies, which the elite are all too willing to impose on
them.
The electoral system must provide a more fail-safe mechanism to
protect the nation from representatives who make spurious election
promises that they have no intention of keeping. Such ease in
usurping the checks and balances of the collective conscience
that's offered by democracy jeopardizes our very sovereignty, and
even humanity itself. The Westminster system's Salisbury Protocol
recognizes the sanctity of the electoral mandate and compels
the government to abide thereto. The significant
remedial potential of this general precept should be fully explored
by the assembly, including the full multitude of possible
variations.
Thus I hope the assembly will realize the importance of this
issue and how their mandate could be used as an historically rare
opportunity for solution. Their assessment of models for electing
members of the Legislative Assembly is limited to the manner by
which voters' ballots are translated into elected members. And I
propose the manner the ballots are translated into elected members
is in the form of a binding contractual mandate, which I've
expounded in my presentation. Though it seems I'm levering a play
on words, the meaning is valid, and the Westminster system's
Salisbury Protocol recognizes the obligation of the mandate. Why
not shift the balance of power to the public in an expression of
true democracy, enabled by a contractual mandate system? The
assembly's courage and determination to make this happen could well
herald a new age that's governed by the collective conscience of
humanity instead of elitist self interest.
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