Occupy Democracy

They understand there’s been an active, conscious, successful class war against them in the United States over the past several decades. As they say repeatedly, they are sick and tired of struggling to make ends meet while 1 per cent of the American population has 40 per cent of the nation’s wealth. Whilst it is not as clear here in Canada there is little doubt that such divisions not only exist but are indeed widening and that many folks are indeed 'struggling to make ends meet'. That the few are getting richer whilst the many are increasingly paying more to multinationals who control much of the basic necessity’s of modern life seems to be the theme that is emerging from the Occupy movement.

What has not emerged, at least not in any meaningful way, is the disproportionate influence that both the rich and the corporate world has upon our democracy. It is this influence that in no small way may well be the reason for the ever widening gap between the rich and the less affluent. After all does government 'consult' with the average Joe on the street or the independent business owner in small town Canada, do large political contributions come from the guy making minimum wage, or the fat cat to whom a large contribution to the party coffers will be but a miniscule percentage of their income.

It is my contention that the very rich be they individuals or corporations have a greater chance of effecting government policy and election results than the rest of us by their choice of party support and thus the funds available for blanket brainwashing via television advertising, and by greater access to those in power than most. The removal of the per vote 'subsidy' is, in my view, a deliberate move to further disenfranchise the lower income voter and enhance the support of those in the upper income brackets.

Given that, according to statscan (2009 figures), only around 5% of individuals make over $100,000 and around 50% of us make under $30,000 is it any wonder that so many folks are not happy with the influence that the upper crust has upon our daily lives.

One of the things that gets many some folk upset is the lack of reliable information on our economy, corporate profits and rising cost of goods. Statscan has many charts and numbers available however many long term records are only available on a pay for use basis (and its NOT a nominal fee but a considerable amount per download, in the hundreds of dollars for any amount of data), once again the average Joe is locked out due to income considerations.

Assuming you get the data it is then open to interpretation, let us take the available data on the consumer price index for instance, as it is on such things that the Occupy movement is in part focusing on.. According to statscan 2009 had a CPI of 116.5% over the past 7 years (2002 being the base year), we all know that the cost of living has gone up more than that over that period just by looking at our bills. From the same chart we see the following , food 123%, shelter 123%, transportation 118% (do you believe that last one, I dont), the point being that the figures that are spouted by those telling us how rosy it is are AVERAGES. A further look at the break down of food prices and we see poultry & dairy 130%, bread & cereal 138%, fats & oils 140%! The point being if you buy a lot of the items whose prices have risen dramatically or comprise a large part of your budget (gas, heating oil and insurance come to mind) and little of those whose prices have remained stable then such figures are meaningless and yet these are what we are told is how our economy is doing or what the AVERAGE wage is or what the cost of living is. Its all a shell game and without open data EASILY and FREELY available we cannot refute the political spin.

That may not be most folks view of a commentary on democracy but to me knowledge is the key to unlocking the door to change.

(For an eye opening series of charts on the U.S. Employment / Compensation / Income gap over the last several years do check out 'Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...”) , similar comparisons for the Canadian economy could not be found!

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The Samara Report – The Outsiders Manifesto

Samara is an independent charitable organization, founded in 2008 to study citizen engagement with Canadian democracy. Their work focuses on three areas: political leadership; the participation of citizens in public life; and public affairs journalism. They have conducted Canada's first-ever systematic series of exit interviews with former Members of Parliament in Canada and have released a series of reports that use these collective narratives to shine light on how Parliament works, and share MP’s advice on how our politics can be improved.

These interviews were shared in a series of four reports that cover the MPs' backgrounds and paths to politics; their transition to public life and the ways they view their roles; how they describe their time in Parliament and their relationship with their political parties and their advice, recommendations and best practices. They have recently released their final report in this series.

These are the four reports-

The_Accidental_Citizen

This report will focus on the first part of those interviews, where the former Parliamentarians discussed their motivations and paths to politics. It sets the stage for a larger series of reports based on the MP exit interviews. Our purpose is neither to applaud nor embarrass MPs, but to understand political leadership and the role of Parliamentarians in our system.

Welcome_to_Parliament

This report is the second in a series sharing the stories and advice of these 65 Parliamentarians, each of whom dedicated an average of nearly ten and a half years to national public life, acting as a bridge between Canadians and their government.

Its_My_Party -_Parliamentary_Dysfunction_Reconsidered

The report outlines how the MPs expressed embarrassment at the public displays of politics in the House of Commons, saying that little constructive work takes place there.  Instead, the MPs said their most important work was done away from the media spotlight, in the less publicized venues of committees and caucus meeting.

The_Outsiders_Manifesto

Canadians know very little about those men and women—leaders like our Members of Parliament—and what they've learned serving on the front lines of our democracy. MPs' experiences can offer tremendous insight into the successes and failings of our democracy, and yet they're rarely consulted about what should be done to improve our democratic process,

Below you will find a few 'teasers' from the final report, there are many surprises in these extensive summaries of the MPs comments and I recommend that anyone interested in our parliamentary system past, present or future read each of the four reports.

'The first area in which MPs focused their recommendations was the nomination process, the point at which a political party, in each of Canada's electoral ridings, chooses its candidate for the federal election. Many of the MPs to whom we spoke, despite winning their nominations, expressed discomfort or outright disgust with the way these decisions were made and the lack of transparency and local engagement in the process.

'Many said they were left to their own devices to determine how to go about their job, how to navigate the intricacies of parliamentary procedure, and even how to hire appropriate staff. As one MP put it, "Rookie MPs are, for all intents and purposes, abandoned the day after they're elected. Unless you've established the right contacts and you've got the ability to find your own way and ask questions, it can be a pretty overpowering situation."

Another simply blamed the leadership of the political parties and the culture of antagonism in the House. "It's going to come from the leadership on top. I really would like to see party leaders from all parties engage in sober debate, and not throwing the malicious barbs back and forth," one MP recommended.

'Several felt that the Speaker should be more empowered to enforce good behaviour. "To me the decorum should be simple. Run it like I did my Grade 8 classroom. Stop it and stop it now. You point at him and put the cameras on [those] who are causing too much disturbance, then let the people talk about it back home," said another MP.

'Many MPs claimed committees were where some of Parliament's best work took place, where MPs could transcend the inflated partisanship of Question Period and make policy recommendations that best reflected the interests of the country as a whole. As such, their recommendations centred on reducing political party influence over the committee process, and putting in place guidance to ensure committee work was better reflected in the legislative process.

Specifically, a number of MPs, including two party leaders, suggested reforming committee regulations to weaken the ability of political party leaders to replace MPs on committees mid-way through their mandate, a tactic used to delay work from moving forward, or to stop it all together. 
 

Several MPs were concerned that committee work didn't have enough influence over the legislative process, and that committee reports were often shelved without proper consideration. "Where committees have more power, a lot more things are going to get done there," one MP said. Another recommended that committee reports should be brought forward as Parliamentary motions, to ensure greater profile and debate of the work. "You spend all this time on committees. Surely there should be some way to have motions on your recommendations. But there isn't. There's just a minister who takes it and says, ‘Thanks very much, we'll veto that. Goodbye,'" he said.

Given the recent shelving of a number of reports from the Public Account Committee the latter three points are particularly of interest! We also wonder why these MPs all wait until they 'retire' before speaking out and if the current lot will actually do anything to improve things. Not holding my breath on that one!

Do visit the Samara web site and support their work to give us a better insight into how our democracy is working and how we might improve it.

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More Parliamentary Contempt

Dale Smith clearly outlines the Conservatives contempt for parliamentary process – here is his recent post in full.

The government introduced its fall budget implementation bill today – while the entire Finance Committee is currently on tour doing pre-budget consultations around the country. What’s more galling – is that they’ve put said bill up for debate tomorrow. You know, while the finance critics are out doing those pre-budget consultations, and giving their staff some 24 hours to digest 650 pages so that they can create briefs for the other MPs who will have to debate it. Oh, and the briefing with department officials? Won’t happen until the 18th, which is once the finance committee members are back after the break week next week.

Added to this, the government unveiled the Ways and Means Motion as part of the supply cycle yesterday – and gave the MPs six whole hours to read over all 250 pages said motion before they had to vote on it. While the finance committee including the critics are not in the House.

In other words, the government has decided to thumb its nose at the fundamental basis of parliamentary democracy in this country. Sure, they have a majority and these bills are going to pass – but that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be robust and informed debate. That’s the whole point of Parliament. If the government is going to release budget bills and supply motions – you know, the kinds of confidence measures that governments live and die by – and stymie the ability of the opposition to actually examine these bills and motions and give them robust and informed debate, then why bother having a House of Commons at all?

Yes, these motions will pass, but debate is important. Informed, robust debate is important. The Ways and Means motion passed without MPs knowing what they were actually voting on. This budget implementation bill isn’t going to see informed debate, but we’ll get the Conservative MPs reading prepared statements about how the opposition needs to support the Economic Action Plan™, the NDP saying that the government needs to create jobs and fix pensions, and the Liberals tutting at both sides about being “too ideological.” And the debate will not be robust, informed, or worth the time of our august institutions.

The Conservatives are treating our parliamentary democracy with contempt. And I fear that Canadians simply don’t care.

http://www.xtra.ca/blog/ottawa/post/2011/10/04/Treating-the-supply-cycle-with-contempt.aspx

Dale continues to bring more of this contempt to our attention in this post. including the Parliamentary Budget Officer thoughts on the just released costing for the 'tough on crime bill' which he calls “total obfuscation.”

We can expect MUCH more of this from the dictatorial Harper Regime in the coming months and years and all we can do is watch and remember for the next election - where much of the pubic support for alternative partys is about to be removed in a self serving move by said regime!

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