A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
Contact us at democracyunderfire@gmail.com

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

About us & Submitting articles

We are a pair of concerned citizens from opposite sides of this country who are trying to highlight how fragile our democracy is and the need to protect what we have and build upon that. We both believe that for any positive change to take place it must be done within the democratic framework; however, as our rights and the public's participation are gradually eroded this is becoming harder and harder. This then is an effort to halt that erosion by education and open debate.

Part of our concern is, in our view, the ever increasing partisanship and internal lack of democracy of our political parties, and so we will endeavor to be as non-partisan as possible in our articles and commentary.
We intend to seek and re-publish articles and opinions about Canadian Democracy, voice our own opinions upon the dangers of doing nothing, and highlight the actions of those that are supporting or attacking it.

We will initially be concentrating upon the Federal scene, the what's and why's of Canadian Democracy and the need for all Canadians to be more educated about it, the actions of our MP's in the House of Commons and the The Senate, Federal electoral rules and reform, and items in the news that have a bearing on those subjects. If you feel you would like to join us in this endeavor please contact us at democracyunderfire@gmail.com.

Submission Guidelines

All posts, comments and articles must adhere to the principals of common human decency and be non-violent in that they are not discriminatory, inflammatory or disrespectful to individuals, other bloggers or groups of people in any way. We can all agree to disagree, but we must do it with good manners. We can also be critical of politicians and those that have the ear of government; indeed the scope of this blog demands it. That too, we can do with good manners (ie, not attacking anyone personally – just their actions, policies and agendas as they affect Canadians).

We ask that all posts or articles submitted reflect honest and accurate information. One of the purposes of this blog is to open up dialogue and debate about democracy in Canada, but we do have a specific purpose, which is to expose the reality that our democratic institutions are no longer working in the way that was originally intended, and we will not publish work that undermines this purpose. Our agenda is to educate ourselves and our fellow Canadians about what is really happening in parliament and politically in this country at this time. To this end, we will not knowingly propagate any mis-information.

Any and all submissions will be carefully considered. However we cannot guarantee that we will publish all articles submitted or invite all those interested to become a guest blogger. If we reject your submissions we will certainly take the time to tell you why. We are not anticipating doing much of this; we want to create an open space for re-claiming democracy in Canada and we really hope you will join us. Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

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