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

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Looking over our shoulder....

Traditionally this is the time of the year that we look back over the past 12 months and remember the highlights, both good and bad, in an effort to 'do better' in the coming year. I would suggest that perhaps we had better keep our eyes firmly in the future lest we walk off the cliff from the highlands of a vibrant democracy and fall into the swamp of authoritarianism and tyranny, we have been traipsing through the scrub-lands of oligarchy for some time now.


However when we have strayed from the path it is often instructive to retrace our steps and see where thing went wrong and here at Democracy Under Fire we intend to do just that over the coming months. Starting in January we will be examining the rise to power and the actions of The Harper Regime over the past 15 years or so as it relates to our democracy, our parliament, our electoral system and our right to know what is being done on our behalf.


In what will be monthly articles leading up to the 2015 election we hope to briefly cover the main events that have brought us to the point where an unnamed civil servant can make the following quote that accurately describes the way our government now works.


In terms of transparency, all ministers in the Canadian government are transparent … because you can look right through them and see the prime minister’s office in the background.”


So whilst I hope my readers keep a eye of the future I hope they will remember to check up on us stumbling around in the weeds, I know there must be a better path back there somewhere and to find it we must examine each turn and fork in the road that led us to the edge of the cliff. Our 'leaders' seem determined to to each try a path in different directions and it remains to be seen if those tracks will take us to a clearing or another swamp, but even soggy ground is better than that long drop of the edge. I hope to show that the path we are on leads to disaster, it is not a journey I am looking forward to but is, I believe, a necessary one, for if we cannot see where we went wrong then how can we make better choices in the future.


May the choices you make in 2015 put you on to a path leading to peace and prosperity for all.




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2 comments:

Owen Gray said...

I look forward to what appears here in the coming months, Rural.

Rural said...

I hopw I have not bitten off more than I can chew and can keep my promise, Owen!