When folk live in an undisturbed bubble for too long, they stop bothering to look outside it. May I suggest that this is not a Canadian Government problem; that it is a Canadian People problem.
There have been 14 Federal Elections just since 1980... In each, Canadians have participated and accepted the result.
We have watched as the House of Commons was taken over by the PMO and as MPs were bought with our money - lifetime Parliamentary pension after 8 years of service anyone?
Since 1980, two Tory Prime Ministers have done some Tory things but left the Liberal Lock untouched. The last actual parliamentary debate that I remember was the Pearson-Diefenbaker flag debate in 1964! Everything since has just been theatre.
Nothing will change until Canadians demand it - and they would have to peek outside their own bubbles to realize that their country has become dysfunctional.
That would be wonderful. The problem is that it runs against the built-in incentives of the existing parties. Modern parties want to tightly control communications through top-down logistics. That means individual candidates are really only useful insofar as they say very little during campaigns and nothing at all afterwards.
As far as I can see, breaking the big parties' hold on power would require the creation of new parties. But that would require both a miraculous marketing campaign - and then winners honest enough to remain faithful to their origins.
Offhand, I can't think of any place on earth in recent history where such a movement was successful.
But the only thing worse than pessimism is giving up.
‘ . . . every single person that I met who was acting in a low-wage, employee/service capacity (waiters, hotel staff, shop workers, airport staff, etc.) was a South Asian [or Filipino ] immigrant, all with a weak command of English or, at best, a first-generation South Asian immigrant. . .”
This certainly describes Regina, the face of which has changed measurably in the past ten years. It’s not necessarily A Bad Thing but it does not bode well for the Canadian Gen Z kids that have been displaced.
"What has to happen to reestablish a healthy public-to-government connection?" A wonderful question, to be certain, Sir.
I cannot remember where - perhaps in a novel that I read? - but someone suggested that the problem of governments that do not listen will not be eliminated until individual members of government fear the public. Now, I don't expect that such fear is in the sense of fear for their safety but the fear is for actual ridicule for stupidity and lying and the consequences for subsequent electoral (non, one hopes) success.
So, "What has to happen ...?" First, the public must actually be sentient about what is happening. I quite expect that such hoped for sentience would reflect the usual left - center - right splits and that is fine. After all, we all have our own backgrounds but the point is that we have to start THINKING about the issues further than looking at teeth or hair or asserted claims of economic (non) competence, etc. Those may be issues that get attention but actual THINKING is much more than that.
Without that, there will be no change and governments (of any stripe) won't fear the public and Canadians will get with they DESERVE, which is precisely the stupidity and lies and incompetence that we see currently.
Oh, and for those who suggest that all one needs to do is to toss the Liberals and replace them with the Conservatives, I say that, yes, the Liberals do need to be tossed but please, please, please do not automatically expect the Conservatives to be any better. Well, unless they fear the public.
Canada's democracy in the last 3 decades has been one of Liberal hegemony with fatally compromised, seat-warming interludes of Conservative "management". Think of a "statist" one-way ratchet. The last decade has been highlighted by the public sector's growth exceeding that of the private sector where, for every dollar invested two have fled the nation. Other than the voting once over mindless tropes at election time (Just Society, Sunny Ways, Elbows Up), the public submit to the political class who ignore them, particularly when the media is a state-subsidized, partisan, activist participant masquerading as news agencies. Ten years after the state abolished capital punishment, Canadians still polled at 80% in favor of its retention. Importation of Islamic migrants with state-accommodation including "hate-crimes" as surrogates for blasphemy laws is the latest form of tyranny masquerading as (the nihilism of) multiculturalism regardless of public opposition.
Until the Eloi lose their incuriosity and adopt some critical thinking we can count on the continued plunder and decline emblematic of a second hand nation complete with mindless tolerance and compliance under the LPC/CCP/UN/WEF/FN/CBC/NGO criminal enterprise and governing complex. Canadian self-governance is now a joke. Canada is a textbook example of Alexander Tytler's end-stage democracy. The trucker's convoy was the last example of positive citizen push-back in Canada and the state stamped it out and proceeded with show trials.
The NDP has a special relationship with the LPC as they have historically been the repository for LPC policy but delayed and implemented without acknowledgement or honesty much like their "taking" of policy from the Greens and Conservatives. Jagmeet, in supporting Trudeau did his party no favors electorally and it has now reverted to the radical policies of Avi's Grandfather. I left them off the string as acknowledgement of their being no longer useful to the criminal enterprise and governing complex.
I live in BC where one can't possibly forget the NDP no mater how hard one tries.
When folk live in an undisturbed bubble for too long, they stop bothering to look outside it. May I suggest that this is not a Canadian Government problem; that it is a Canadian People problem.
There have been 14 Federal Elections just since 1980... In each, Canadians have participated and accepted the result.
We have watched as the House of Commons was taken over by the PMO and as MPs were bought with our money - lifetime Parliamentary pension after 8 years of service anyone?
Since 1980, two Tory Prime Ministers have done some Tory things but left the Liberal Lock untouched. The last actual parliamentary debate that I remember was the Pearson-Diefenbaker flag debate in 1964! Everything since has just been theatre.
Nothing will change until Canadians demand it - and they would have to peek outside their own bubbles to realize that their country has become dysfunctional.
Good points. The trick, however, is figuring out how we're supposed to make those demands coherently.
Agreed, Sir.
And it's even more difficult in an age when language has been weaponized.
How about electing better MPs and insisting that parliamentary debate return to the House of Commons?
That would be wonderful. The problem is that it runs against the built-in incentives of the existing parties. Modern parties want to tightly control communications through top-down logistics. That means individual candidates are really only useful insofar as they say very little during campaigns and nothing at all afterwards.
As far as I can see, breaking the big parties' hold on power would require the creation of new parties. But that would require both a miraculous marketing campaign - and then winners honest enough to remain faithful to their origins.
Offhand, I can't think of any place on earth in recent history where such a movement was successful.
But the only thing worse than pessimism is giving up.
‘ . . . every single person that I met who was acting in a low-wage, employee/service capacity (waiters, hotel staff, shop workers, airport staff, etc.) was a South Asian [or Filipino ] immigrant, all with a weak command of English or, at best, a first-generation South Asian immigrant. . .”
This certainly describes Regina, the face of which has changed measurably in the past ten years. It’s not necessarily A Bad Thing but it does not bode well for the Canadian Gen Z kids that have been displaced.
"What has to happen to reestablish a healthy public-to-government connection?" A wonderful question, to be certain, Sir.
I cannot remember where - perhaps in a novel that I read? - but someone suggested that the problem of governments that do not listen will not be eliminated until individual members of government fear the public. Now, I don't expect that such fear is in the sense of fear for their safety but the fear is for actual ridicule for stupidity and lying and the consequences for subsequent electoral (non, one hopes) success.
So, "What has to happen ...?" First, the public must actually be sentient about what is happening. I quite expect that such hoped for sentience would reflect the usual left - center - right splits and that is fine. After all, we all have our own backgrounds but the point is that we have to start THINKING about the issues further than looking at teeth or hair or asserted claims of economic (non) competence, etc. Those may be issues that get attention but actual THINKING is much more than that.
Without that, there will be no change and governments (of any stripe) won't fear the public and Canadians will get with they DESERVE, which is precisely the stupidity and lies and incompetence that we see currently.
Oh, and for those who suggest that all one needs to do is to toss the Liberals and replace them with the Conservatives, I say that, yes, the Liberals do need to be tossed but please, please, please do not automatically expect the Conservatives to be any better. Well, unless they fear the public.
Canada's democracy in the last 3 decades has been one of Liberal hegemony with fatally compromised, seat-warming interludes of Conservative "management". Think of a "statist" one-way ratchet. The last decade has been highlighted by the public sector's growth exceeding that of the private sector where, for every dollar invested two have fled the nation. Other than the voting once over mindless tropes at election time (Just Society, Sunny Ways, Elbows Up), the public submit to the political class who ignore them, particularly when the media is a state-subsidized, partisan, activist participant masquerading as news agencies. Ten years after the state abolished capital punishment, Canadians still polled at 80% in favor of its retention. Importation of Islamic migrants with state-accommodation including "hate-crimes" as surrogates for blasphemy laws is the latest form of tyranny masquerading as (the nihilism of) multiculturalism regardless of public opposition.
Until the Eloi lose their incuriosity and adopt some critical thinking we can count on the continued plunder and decline emblematic of a second hand nation complete with mindless tolerance and compliance under the LPC/CCP/UN/WEF/FN/CBC/NGO criminal enterprise and governing complex. Canadian self-governance is now a joke. Canada is a textbook example of Alexander Tytler's end-stage democracy. The trucker's convoy was the last example of positive citizen push-back in Canada and the state stamped it out and proceeded with show trials.
Don’t forget the role the NDP plays in this fiasco.
The NDP has a special relationship with the LPC as they have historically been the repository for LPC policy but delayed and implemented without acknowledgement or honesty much like their "taking" of policy from the Greens and Conservatives. Jagmeet, in supporting Trudeau did his party no favors electorally and it has now reverted to the radical policies of Avi's Grandfather. I left them off the string as acknowledgement of their being no longer useful to the criminal enterprise and governing complex.
I live in BC where one can't possibly forget the NDP no mater how hard one tries.