Democracy – Take 2

It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

So then I really shouldn’t be allowed to do the job! Honestly though, I don’t really want to get elected. What I do want is a group of others who also don’t want to get elected, to get elected. Or to summarize that summary: What I want and think we need are people in politics where being elected isn’t the end goal.

These are some goals of a hypothetical anti-party party.

I am tired of promises, I am tired of “the same”. I am tired of partisanship. I am tired of politics in politics. We need people to make common sense decisions, using the resources we have, based upon sound planning and implementation. Some examples?

  • Tendering should not go automatically to the lowest bidder. Like shopping at a discount store, you get what you pay for. And sometimes what you need is the discount, sure. But others, with infrastructure, its cheaper to do it right and pay a little more up front than to repair it every 5 minutes. And the winning bid should guarantee their work!
  • Essential services should not be privatized monopolies.  NS Power has no business being a profit making entity, unless it has competition.
    • Options I’ve heard include breaking it into a public infrastructure business, where the public (ie, the government) is responsible to maintain the hardware, and then lease that to many private businesses with competition.
    • Or, just privatize it completely
    • I’m sure there are other compelling options
  • Investigate regulation and presumed collusion.  Why does Canada pay the most in the western world for cell service.  We always get the same old “Its so large, the infrastructure costs more” – Why then is a package from each provider, with different infrastructures identical in price? There may be no underhandedness.  But there is no transparency either. Broadband/Cell Service is pretty much an essential service now.  Treat it as such.

I’m sure there are tons more you can suggest, but I’m not looking to rant (right now). What I do want is to draw up a list of points that the peoples party should do/have.

  1. Analyze revenues and expenditures.  Prioritize whats needed over whats desired.  Don’t spend what we don’t have.  Don’t promise to spend what we don’t have. Be transparent, be simple about it.  Publish lists of expenditures, priorities and why.
  2. Take advice.  Shit or get off the pot. Don’t make committees.  What the hell do most of our members know about most things? Getting a report from an industry expert is fine. Or more than one.  But make the decision to do so, not pass things off to a committee with a report in 6 months.  Stop wasting time.
  3. Do whats needed, not whats wanted/looks good.  We NEED better health and education.  We need better transportation options.  That doesn’t mean we need more schools, hospitals or roads.  (It doesn’t mean we don’t either) We need to explore all options and do whats right, and explain why its right.  Not everyone will agree of course, but we need to come to a consensus.  That leads to…
  4. As much as possible, come to consensus.  Yelling across a room does nothing to further the province/country.  Stop it.  Stop bickering.  Work together and solve things, or get out.
  5. If the people are free to vote for whom they wish, so should the people they vote for.  No party votes.  Things pass or fail on there own merit.  See 3.  If there is consensus, it should be a non issue.  If there isn’t … then we’ve failed.
  6. Democracy has been corrupted.  Money is the great influencer.  So… there will be no campaign advertising allowed by anyone.  No party contributions accepted by any party, or member. There will be no party finances. No lobbying. Can this work? Probably not 100%, parties need to meet, meeting costs money.  Where does that money come from? I don’t know.

I don’t have all the answers, hell I likely don’t have any of them, or even know the questions.  But why should you or I believe others do? Is what we currently do working?

Posted in Politics

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