Happily, I earned my promotion within the federal government partly because my position was deemed ‘bilingual’ and I met that criterion. It’s the way that The System works but I can’t say that I agree with it. I encountered many a civil servant who was *officially* bilingual but who really couldn’t conduct a meaningful conversation in their second language; they’d just passed the government language school programme, which generally teaches bureaucratese. A year or two later, having hardly needed their French on the Prairies, they’d lost their vocabulary but remained in their position as their language profile was valid for five years.
Great stuff. Frankly, PEI must be the most overgoverned jurisdiction on the planet. It has roughly the same population as Guelph, Ontario. Guelph has a mayor and twelve city counsellors. Roughly 80% of PEI’s population lives in or around Charlottetown, the provincial capital, which has a mayor and ten counsellors. But wait, there’s more! PEI also has 27 members of its provincial legislative assembly, or, roughly one for every 7,000 citizens. AND, they have four federal MPs, too, plus whatever LPC bagman in the Senate hails from the island province.
Yes. We need a sensible proportional voting system, but I won't go down that alley here. I would like to give a shout out to the good work that most MPs & MLAs do at the constituency level. I saw that in action first with the wonderful BC Legislative Intern Program many years ago. I think that (mostly) MPs and MLAs provide assistance where they can without regard to political affiliation. They can be lifesavers. I wish our govt bureaucracies were easier to navigate, but that is another alley down which I won't go here!
Thank you, that is a very interesting analysis of the lack of power that the elected representatives have. Another factor that would be interesting to include would be how the economies of the different electoral districts are represented, particularly when looking at the number of voters per MP. How are the interests of typical voters represented in Vancouver Centre, 11 km2 with 91,000 relatively homogeneous, wealthy and gentrified urban apartment dwelling voters versus the interests of voters in Skeena - Bulkley Valley: 327,000 km2 with 62,000 voters who have diverse and often competing interests, First Nations, multiple large mines, several major port facilities, forestry, farmers, ranchers, fishing, tourism etc.
Your work is spot on regarding the end-stage of Canadian democracy. This, and dozens of other political sacred cows (irreformable within confederation) are perhaps motivation behind western separatism where the notion of "starting over" is seen as much more feasible to a concentration of conservative voters hopelessly wasted within Canada. On a broader scale, given the statist metastasized scope and reach of virtually all western nations (whether republican or constitutional parliamentary monarchies), Alexander Tytler's thesis on how all democracies die, appears to hold. I'm reminded of the delightful 1980s comedy, 'Ghostbusters' and the line, "Choose the form of your destroyer".
Interesting . I have felt the PM(O) had too much unchecked power for some time. Minus a system overhaul with no clear alternative in sight do you think a US style confirmation process of appointments might be a meaningful incremental change? Nice work. Thank you .
For what it's worth, I think the U.S. confirmation system is pretty much broken: votes in recent years are nearly always party-line. And I don't think things would necessarily be any better here. But one change that I imagine would be helpful is to give full control of Senate appointments to provincial legislatures and assign seats according to population. I'm not the first person with this idea and, of course, the constitutional changes required would be pretty much impossible. But it can't hurt to dream.
Happily, I earned my promotion within the federal government partly because my position was deemed ‘bilingual’ and I met that criterion. It’s the way that The System works but I can’t say that I agree with it. I encountered many a civil servant who was *officially* bilingual but who really couldn’t conduct a meaningful conversation in their second language; they’d just passed the government language school programme, which generally teaches bureaucratese. A year or two later, having hardly needed their French on the Prairies, they’d lost their vocabulary but remained in their position as their language profile was valid for five years.
Excellent! I love your figures.
Great stuff. Frankly, PEI must be the most overgoverned jurisdiction on the planet. It has roughly the same population as Guelph, Ontario. Guelph has a mayor and twelve city counsellors. Roughly 80% of PEI’s population lives in or around Charlottetown, the provincial capital, which has a mayor and ten counsellors. But wait, there’s more! PEI also has 27 members of its provincial legislative assembly, or, roughly one for every 7,000 citizens. AND, they have four federal MPs, too, plus whatever LPC bagman in the Senate hails from the island province.
Yes. We need a sensible proportional voting system, but I won't go down that alley here. I would like to give a shout out to the good work that most MPs & MLAs do at the constituency level. I saw that in action first with the wonderful BC Legislative Intern Program many years ago. I think that (mostly) MPs and MLAs provide assistance where they can without regard to political affiliation. They can be lifesavers. I wish our govt bureaucracies were easier to navigate, but that is another alley down which I won't go here!
Thank you, that is a very interesting analysis of the lack of power that the elected representatives have. Another factor that would be interesting to include would be how the economies of the different electoral districts are represented, particularly when looking at the number of voters per MP. How are the interests of typical voters represented in Vancouver Centre, 11 km2 with 91,000 relatively homogeneous, wealthy and gentrified urban apartment dwelling voters versus the interests of voters in Skeena - Bulkley Valley: 327,000 km2 with 62,000 voters who have diverse and often competing interests, First Nations, multiple large mines, several major port facilities, forestry, farmers, ranchers, fishing, tourism etc.
That's a fascinating question. I'll try to figure out a way to measure such outcomes.
Your work is spot on regarding the end-stage of Canadian democracy. This, and dozens of other political sacred cows (irreformable within confederation) are perhaps motivation behind western separatism where the notion of "starting over" is seen as much more feasible to a concentration of conservative voters hopelessly wasted within Canada. On a broader scale, given the statist metastasized scope and reach of virtually all western nations (whether republican or constitutional parliamentary monarchies), Alexander Tytler's thesis on how all democracies die, appears to hold. I'm reminded of the delightful 1980s comedy, 'Ghostbusters' and the line, "Choose the form of your destroyer".
Interesting . I have felt the PM(O) had too much unchecked power for some time. Minus a system overhaul with no clear alternative in sight do you think a US style confirmation process of appointments might be a meaningful incremental change? Nice work. Thank you .
For what it's worth, I think the U.S. confirmation system is pretty much broken: votes in recent years are nearly always party-line. And I don't think things would necessarily be any better here. But one change that I imagine would be helpful is to give full control of Senate appointments to provincial legislatures and assign seats according to population. I'm not the first person with this idea and, of course, the constitutional changes required would be pretty much impossible. But it can't hurt to dream.