Posted on 07/15/2005 3:20:41 PM PDT by Heartofsong83
Belinda's lesson
By LINK BYFIELD -- Calgary Sun
Pardon me while I gag. It was announced from Ottawa last week that our new Minister of Democratic Renewal will spend $1 million crossing the country to find out why fewer Canadians -- especially young people -- are voting in national elections.
Why is there such growing apathy, disengagement and even cynicism about politics? She's determined to find out.
The minister is Belinda Stronach, who was elected a year ago as a Conservative MP by the voters of New Market-Aurora in Ontario.
On May 17, the Liberals bribed her with a cabinet position to cross the floor, to save them from having to call an election.
That was during the nine-day period in May when Canada actually had an illegal government, one which refused to either face the House of Commons or go to the people.
Instead, it pretended the rules didn't exist, and made Stronach an offer she couldn't refuse.
That got them up to a tie in the House so the Liberal Speaker could then cast the deciding vote and the government could still pretend it is legitimate.
A bit like when your kid makes a bad move in checkers and says after the fact: "Wait, my hand was still on it!"
Now Belinda's job is to get young people more enthused about democracy -- partly, she says, by teaching them "how the system works."
Who knows better than she does how to work the system?
When she comes to explain democracy to Albertans, maybe she can bring Senator Grant Mitchell along to explain why he's in the Senate and not Bert Brown.
Bert got about half a million votes. Mitchell got one -- from Paul Martin.
You have to hand it to the Liberals, they may be utterly cynical, but they do have a sense of humour.
It hardly needs be said that this whole exercise will amount to a million-dollar subsidy to the Liberal Party of Canada, a mini-version of the Sponsorship Program.
The only young people who will turn out will be young Liberals with an eye on the main chance.
Belinda aspires to leadership.
She wants to meet them.
As for "democracy," the Liberals think it's just a troublesome waste of time.
Parliament is a waste of time.
Referendums are evil "majoritarianism."
The Charter is good because it puts social control in the hands of the judges chosen by the prime minister.
That's the Canadian system. It's like the one-party "democracy" of the old Soviet Union, or the notoriously corrupt Institutional Revolutionary Party which ran Mexico for 70 straight years.
The other reason for Belinda's dog and pony show is to furnish Liberal talking points for Paul Martin's chatter about the "democratic deficit," in case the party needs it for media fodder in the next election.
The Liberals like the idea of democracy, just like they approve of the idea of a federal system.
The idea makes them feel good, but only if they get to control it.
What they don't like is the reality.
Real democracy is hard, messy and unpredictable. Real federalism requires genuine tolerance of regional differences.
Liberals hate both. They have pretty much destroyed the authority of Parliament, and they're forever subverting the Constitution to impose "national standards" in social jurisdictions that are none of their business.
If the national government really wants more Canadians to be politically engaged, it must give them more power.
If it wants democracy, it must allow democracy.
The means of doing so were spelled out by the Reform Party two decades ago, and haven't changed.
Give Canadians a real Senate to protect their provincial rights. Give them the right of referendum over national social policy such as same-sex marriage. And legislate a ban on governments spending money outside their areas of constitutional jurisdiction.
With these three measures in place, Canada could function as a true federal democracy.
Without them, it's just a big ghetto run by treacherous power-grubbers like Belinda Stronach.
In Canada there is the rest of Canada and then there is Ontario and Quebec. Quebec I understand and wish them godspeed with independance but Ontario is just a weird place. Big absolutist nanny state governments are absolutely loved in Ontario. Remember avoiding the risks of life is the MO of Ontario and thats the promise of the nanny state.
Belinda represents this. She tried to turn the Conservatives to the dark side and failed so she is helping the Liberals.
What else do you expect from a "conservative" who shagged Bill Clinton?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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