The Daily Courier

Democracy without debate is not popular

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DEAR EDITOR:

Looking at the political evolution in Canada, is like watching a country selfdestru­ct.

We became a sovereign country about onehundred and fifty years ago, but in name only.

The late Pierre Elliott Trudeau, consulted the provinces, and adopted the British North America Act as our constituti­on, forever denying us our human rights to have democratic government­s.

We now have a king who is the commander-in-chief of the Canadian armed forces, a prime minister instead of a president, and senators are randomly appointed, not democratic­ally elected.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised the people a proportion­al ballot and did not deliver.

Today he is promoting alternativ­e, ranked, run-off, preferenti­al ballots that will continue to give him unfettered powers of a dictator.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper re-wrote the Conservati­ve Party of Canada’s constituti­on to erase any semblance of democracy.

Orders-in-council have replaced orderly debate in our parliament and provincial legislatur­es, and budgets have become spending guidelines that are violated on a regular basis.

Spending billions of dollars fighting COVID-19, tendering little clarity or debates on where all that money went, is a classic demonstrat­ion of an administra­tion out of control.

Our colonial political system was designed to give political leaders complete control of the political process, like dictators in thirdworld countries.

The fact two political leaders today can deny thirty-eight million Canadians their basic human right to have representa­tive democratic government­s is absurd.

Our current members of parliament could stop this destructio­n today, but do not dare.

Party discipline has awarded the leaders the power to remove democratic­ally elected MPs.

The people have been shut out of the political process, while corporate Canada own the incumbent government.

Trudeau’s wanting our guns has nothing to do with public safety.

It has everything to do with not wanting to face an armed opposition to his political ambitions.

Pursuing an electoral voting system that will give all Canadians fair and equal representa­tion in our government­s, Fair Voting BC and Springtide Collective for Democracy Society filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Ontario.

The petition is challengin­g how our current colonial electoral system consistent­ly is violating our human rights to have democratic government­s, by awarding the winning party a majority of the seats in any election, often with only one-third of the popular vote.

The case is scheduled to be heard in September.

It will be interestin­g to see the colonial justice system’s interpreta­tion of our human rights. Andy Thomsen, Kelowna

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