Holding their feet to the fire!
Monday is election day in Canada and one of the most important ever.
Let’s have a show of Hands! How many of you have read John Ralston Saul? He is a Canadian philosopher who has written some of the most important books and relevant commentary on our times. His books are freely available on Amazon. If you like Kindle as much as I do they are dirt cheap and you can highlight them to your heart’s content—in the color of your choice. I don’t watch Hockey Night in Canada. I am too busy highlighting key passages in important books. Highlighting is comparable to chain smoking but you learn something without effing up your lungs. Unlike a lot of philosophers his books are very readable, and commercial free.
The quote above has never been truer than it is today as capitalism in its most predatory form has shaken Western Civilization to its very foundations . If you really want to know what is going on in the world you don’t read the daily news papers. They are so miserly they can’t even line the bottom of a bird cage.
Substack is a good way to start your day.
Yes, democracy is on the ropes…. it has been undermined. That is a very reason we are in this mess. Are we willing to settle for fascists and rogue demagogues?
There is a very old political adage that says… “for Canadians democracy only occurs once every four years; election day”. No, democracy must happen every day and its our job to make sure it happens.
There is also the adage that “we get the government we deserve”. It is easy to sit back and be cynical about politicians and politics but there are so many ways to make our voices heard…. and put their feet to fire.
Did you know there are 7000 lobbyists in Ottawa? That is 20 lobbyists for every MP. Maybe it is time to put checks on the power lobbyists have to influence government.
Did you know a political party can form a majority government with only 30% of the popular vote… and we call this representative government!
Did you know Canada is committed to buying 74 billion dollars worth of F-35 jets and the final deliveries don’t come until 2034. The manufacturer is laughing all the way to the bank.
The polls are indicating the incumbent Liberals will win a stay of execution mostly because they have a new leader. After a decade in the doldrums this is a government that must excel and we must make our voices heard.
We really must hold their feet to the fire.
“When people fear the government we have tyranny, when government fears the people we have democracy.”—often attributed to Thomas Jefferson,
History’s Parrot is read in 38 US states and 54 countries world wide.
Who knows...perhaps this is a good chance to start weening away from America's bosom.
The repair for the first-past-the-post is the French method, of run-off elections until someone has an actual majority. But that allows people to see how others have voted and adjust as needed. It that way, it mimics genuine town-hall democracy in which if you make a stupid proposal or voting decision, you have to explain it to the other people. This shows the error of the ballot box, in which you place your single vote, which you marked in your retribution box, since voting this was is mainly an emotional rather than rational decision. Especially when stupid people vote.