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.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Prime Minister Dad

In case you missed it Rick Mercer latest “rant” once again says what others, myself included, say in a page full in just a few sentences, and once again he is right on the money.


Democracy is very messy. In fact on paper it doesn't even make a heck of a lot of sense. For starters it involves all of us, and by all of us I mean the people. And what’s worse, people’s opinions, which only leads to debate. And let's face it, no matter what the issue, for every sensible person on either side there are two idiots who are addicted to the sound of their own voice. I should know I'm one of them.

But lately, I’ve noticed that some of the messy parts of democracy are slowly being done away with. Like debate. Remember debate? No, neither do I. It's been a while.

For example, a couple of months ago, Stephen Harper decided to change the name of the Canadian Navy to The Royal Canadian Navy. There was no debate. He just announced it. Now personally I don't care one way or the other, but people in the navy do. Some of them love it; some of them hate it. But the important thing is nobody asked for their opinion. Who cares what they think? They just serve in the Navy. Who cares what we think? We just pay for it. Nope, dad said, end of story.

And now we have this pipeline business. Now I realize I should have paid more attention to this a year ago, but like a lot of Canadians it's just showing up on my radar now. And honestly, I don’t know if the pipeline is a good idea or a bad idea. But the good news is I no longer have to look at both sides. None of us do. No, because dad has made it perfectly clear, there’s only one side to this issue. And anyone who thinks otherwise is an enemy to Canada. I’ve got to say this is way better than the old days when we had the burden of being informed citizens on our shoulders.

No, now we have a new job: to be seen and not heard. Welcome to Canada 2012. His house, his rules. God save the King.


More recent home truths from Rick about our failing democracy Here and Here.
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