What Can Canada Do?

Seems like any news on our Canadian government is bad news. It is always another embarrassing story, normally with the Liberal party, but it is certainly not restricted to them.

From the Sponsorship scandal to the complete mockery the Liberal party is making of politics today, are we capable of turning this around? On top of that, are we capable of turning this around in the near future?

My local MP is Liberal, and I have voted for him in the last two elections. He is a friend of the family and a good man, which is why I have voted for him. I do not support his party, but he is the best man for our area. However, I am tired of making an effort of going to the polling stations knowing regardless how I vote it is going to get stuck to me.

Even if he does good on a local level, Ottawa sticks it to us to make up for the kindness of our MP.

I truly am proud to be Canadian, but is anyone else sick and tired of how bad our politics represent our country?

From an outsiders perspective, you only hear of controversy and crooks. Ol' Dubya has his share of bad press, but atleast he can ileviate that by standing his ground with the War on Iraq & Terrorism.

What can our politicians stand on?

How can we turn this around?

Hello, thought provoking thread.

There is some 'good news' that gets out about Canada, but you won't find it in any US press. You have to leave the continent to find it. I have definitely noticed what you have mentioned. The only time anyone in the US wants to talk about Canada is when we annoy them or we do something they can point at and feel superior about. Other than that, we don't exist.

Without some kind of electoral reform, I don't see anything changing in the near future. I voted NDP last time, not because I like the party, but because I liked the member. It always sucks when you have an MP who's not in the ruling party. Years ago, when BC would complain about being ignored, Chretien said the solution was to elect more Liberals. Butthead. :shk:

There is good news... if you go looking for it. A couple fr'instances from 2day. A NATO Commander (an American) did address the Council On Foreign Relations - said the current Afgan Mission would not have been "the success it is" without Canadian participation... not that I agree with that statement of success but he did acknowledge the high casualty rate. (I wish they would have painted the tanks we sent something other than green-camo).

How about that Canadian dollar? Or our position in the G8? Or of those G8 countries our ranking with regard to national debt. Do I like any of the political parties? Are Paul Martin's kids ships of Canadian flag?

We do many things of value both on and off-planet too... being the third space-faring nation we continue an involvement that goes back to Alouette and will stretch forward to Mars... in some ways we "over-contribute" compared to other larger nations.

What can Canadians do? Vote or perhaps run for office yourself (Duzey for PM!). I won't trot out any history (I could)... do our politicians screw up? Have you ever made an error of judgement? There are 4 politicians I like up here, two are dead and the other two are practically unelectable beyond the offices they currently hold.

The very nature of our diverse and sprawling nation and body-politic guarantees differences of opinion and our petty politicians do use this in their "work". Put it this way, If I'm in a "spot" and have a choice of folks only knowing their nationality... I'll choose Canadian everytime... not out of patriotism, out of ruthlessness.

What can one do? Be patient, work toward positive change and/or emmigrate. I fully appreciate your frustration and have harboured some similar sentiments since "the dollar was floated" but having lived in several other "nice" places across the decades, I find no substitute for Canada. None. As Churchill said Canada is "the linch-pin" and as Bono (get a haircut and second name) has opined "The World needs more Canada".

Victor K.

40'

[edit on 4-10-2006 by V Kaminski]

Duze.. bias in the media? Noooooo! (/sarcasm)

I understand our Dollar is doing better than ever, and positive media is out there. But for a country that should be so proud, it can become frustrating listening to how much of a joke our government has become.

The worst of all this, is when I begin to agree with it.

I believe Joltin Joe's latest debacle has put me over the edge.

I don't think our government is a joke, I think the people we elect are. Volpe is a prime example of someone who needs to retire from politics.

Originally posted by V Kaminski
Duzey for PM!

Perish the thought! But if it ever happened.....

I'd be the Ralph Klein of federal government. Without the drinking, yelling at homeless people, blaming global warming on dinosaur farts and conservative positions on things like same-sex marriage. Basically I'd be fun to laugh at and cause people to say 'I can't believe she said/did that!'.

It would be Duzeymania!

Originally posted by Duzey
I don't think our government is a joke, I think the people we elect are.

Our government is only as good as those who represent it.

(Insert Cheese)

Your only as strong as your weakest link

I do strongly believe our politicians do a poor job on representing their people. Being Canadian is something to be proud of, sometimes we take a bad rap for the scum we put in office.

The good do die young, especially in politics.

Look who's being all profound today.

In my opinion (which is never humble ), one of the biggest problems with our government today is that party politics has become more important than actually doing the work they have been elected to do. All the parties are too busy attacking each other instead of getting down to business running our country. Everyone is so busy positioning themselves for the next election or cabinet shuffle, they forget just who got them the job to begin with. Us.

A good example of party politics overtaking the good of the country was the Chretien-Martin thing. I disliked Chretien for years but what I liked even less was reading about the feud and watching the government be consumed by an internal party issue that should have been handled in a much better way. The people of Canada should get to choose their Prime Minister, not the Liberal Party. Now they are so divided and full of bad blood, they spend all their free time trying to get back at each other not realizing how much worse it makes them look.

We elect people to run our country, not waste their time and our money playing office politics. Perhaps we need to start talking about term limits? Politics should not be a career choice.

Profound.. You make it sound so well. I would of called it frustrated. I'll take Profound any day!

quote: Originally posted by Duzey
one of the biggest problems with our government today is that party politics has become more important than actually doing the work they have been elected to do. All the parties are too busy attacking each other instead of getting down to business running our country. Everyone is so busy positioning themselves for the next election or cabinet shuffle, they forget just who got them the job to begin with. Us.

Yes!

Exactly what I am thinking, but can never put in to words. You do it so easily!

This and having to tow the party line are two main problems with our system.

Do you think an electoral reform would ever be possible in our country?

I've always been a fan of the word profound. It's so impressive sounding, isn't it?

Electoral reforms are completely possible. There's not a lot that can be done about the influence of Quebec without opening up a huge can of worms and quite possibly breaking up the country. If you are willing to start with the premise that Quebec will always have a higher proportion of seats than they should based on population, everything else is fair game.

The NDP did talk about electoral reform in the last election and that played a part in my choice. Goverment will only change when enough people make electoral reform a priority. We need to support the parties/individuals that are willing to look at reforms and let them know that's the kind of talk we want to hear more of. The issue needs a higher profile.

I would like to see some changes on the provincial level first. Maybe use them as guinea pigs for federal changes.

It's gotten so bad, I've developed a plan:

1. Collect all MPs of all parties in a McDonalds.

2. Collect Prince Charles, Tony Blair and his freak wife also in said McDonald's.

3. Start 'tradgic' grease fire, with no survivors.

4. Elect Prince William as our absolute monarch, under the regency of Hillier.

I'm sorry, but our electoral system makes me want to cry. Instead of supporting the troops, we have some people heckling the PM to reconsider the mission, and one party thinking that we should be talking to the Taliban. Instead of ACTUALLY GETTING THINGS DONE, we have squabbles across the House of Commons, going back and forth, side to side, and in between members of the same party.

A good start would be re-evaluating the numbers of MPs each province should get every five years. BC and Alberta have grown, the East coast has shrunk, and I'm not even sure PEI should be a province.

The senate needs to be put in a retirement home and stop being paid to sleep, the lazy bastards.

That's where I'd START, either the grease fire or the above. maybe both, that wouldn't be too bad. We're getting too much hippy-liberal drift all up in.

DE

The whole system sucks, adversarial in nature. The gov't policies are automatically targeted by the opposition. However if there is a change of gov't then that party may support what they didn't before, the ones that did before now don't. Stupidity. Getting rid of the "non confidence" vote may accomplish this. Let the PEOPLE give a non confidence vote, say every 2 years. Nothing big like an election, more of a referendum.

AQ few things I'd like to see. #1, abolish regional parties, read the Bloc. Too much power for one province to have, blackmails the rest of the country to keep the gov't in power, which is obviously the gov'ts motive. An elected senate, or abolish it altogether. Pass legislation to force Quebec into the constitution, stability. I know, it looks like I'm dumping on Quebec but damn, we've been pawns to Le Belle Province for too damn many years. I thought this was all solved on the Plains of Abraham.

In defeat, we spite you!

I can understand having a distinct party for QUebec, nad I actually like it. It'll never get too big, and it gives them a voice for their distinct culture without comprimising the system some other way. I think Quebec needs less total seats, though.

Another problem is thatthe demographics change all the time. Like I said, every five years the number of seats needs to be re-evaluated.

DE

That's an interesting plan, DE. While I've never up for arson, I got on board once you suggested letting Hillier run the country. All Regent Hillier.

The funny thing about the Bloc is that if they dropped the whole separation thing, they would be a viable party nation-wide. I like a lot of what they say.

Quebec does get more seats than they deserve, but I like giving them extra seats more than I like the idea of amending the constitution and giving the separatists more support and complaints. They way I look at it is the separatist movement is slowly dying with the influx of new Canadians to Le Belle Province. New Canadians want to live in Canada, not the nation of Quebec. Not to mention all the Canadian businesses in Quebec that will no longer be Canadian and eligible for federal grants.

The more immigrants that move to Quebec, the lower support for separation will go.

I also like the idea of revisting seat-distribution every so often. My only concern is that we would end up with a larger government.

Well, we'll always have arson, dear Duzey.

I don't like the bigger government, but maybe having X number fo seats and shifting them around. Musical seats as far as immigration goes.

DE