Republic of Canada

Should Canada Go Republic?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 53.3%
  • No

    Votes: 6 40.0%
  • Maybe so

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • Total voters
    15

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,340
113
Vancouver Island
What democracy allows the whole nation to vote for a PM? The PM (or majority leader in the case of the US) is elected by his constituents as a local representative and then only put in that position by the party or the House. Same in the US, France, and elsewhere.

Seems like you're confusing the legislative and executive branches. Technically the Canadian equivalent of the president is not the PM, but the Governor General or the Queen.

WHy do we have to play follow the leader. We can have what ever we want.
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
9,949
21
38
kelowna bc
No it would be a descent into madness. Think about it ultra conservatives
the Liberals looking for a reason to exist, the lefties and the greenies.
without due controls of civility. Nope. A list of stupid referendums that
impede progress. Actually the system works pretty well if you have people
who are willing to make the give and take compromises required in an
open democratic state. The problem is not the system it is the inadequate
representatives we send to Ottawa
 

WLDB

Senate Member
Jun 24, 2011
6,182
0
36
Ottawa
WE just have to look south to see the repercussions.

There are far more than one model to look at. They put so many checks and balances in theirs that they wind up in perpetual deadlock.


On the poll, yes. I doubt it will happen anytime soon though. Hopefully within my lifetime but I dont expect it to even be discussed til the Queen dies at the earliest. It would be a major constitutional change and that tends to be pretty rough. I don't mind that though. It has to open up eventually if not over that then it will be something else.

Hence a Republic. We have no say in who is elected PM or appointed to the Upper House. I want say.

There is the German or French models. They have a PM chosen by their parliaments (chancellor for Germany) with a President above that. Here we can give the office of GG actual powers and make it an office elected by the whole country.
 

L Gilbert

Winterized
Nov 30, 2006
23,738
107
63
71
50 acres in Kootenays BC
the-brights.net
I was pointing out that one of the most common gripes about "your neighbours to the south," income inequality, is as bad or worse in Switzerland. I'm surprised you didn't pick up on that.
Yeah. At least in Switzerland, if the people want to change things, they can. If people under representative type gov'ts want something changed, unless the representatives want to change it there's a heckuva mess to do so (mess, as in protests, petitions, discussion committees when the gov't realises it has to bend to public will but doesn't want to, etc. or else we have to wait for election day). In Switzerland, the people get a referendum and it's done. Representative gov'ts have been little but a pain in the a$$ to people for a decade of decades.

And what's wrong with the gold standard? Sure it could be something else, but either way it'd be better than our current thin air.

Here, the only time we have anything that resembles a democracy is on election day. The rest of the time we're in an oligarchic plutocracy.
 

El Barto

les fesses a l'aire
Feb 11, 2007
5,959
66
48
Quebec
No it would be a descent into madness. Think about it ultra conservatives
the Liberals looking for a reason to exist, the lefties and the greenies.
without due controls of civility. Nope. A list of stupid referendums that
impede progress. Actually the system works pretty well if you have people
who are willing to make the give and take compromises required in an
open democratic state. The problem is not the system it is the inadequate
representatives we send to Ottawa
Exactly!
It would be nice to have control over that other than elections.
The way it is now , we vote someone else in when the last one has done too much crap and scandals.
It would be nice to vote and have a bit more power in our hands.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
17,878
61
48
Ottawa, ON
WHy do we have to play follow the leader. We can have what ever we want.

What would be the point of having a nationally elected PM if we'd also have a nationally elected president. Would that not be a little redundant?

If were were to have a republic, we could laso learn from the german model where the President still has limited powers.

What Democracy allows you to vote for an MP but not a PM?

Well granted you get to vote for the PM indirectly in the sense he still has to be supported by enough MPs. That applies elsewhere too, including in the US with regards to the majority leader of the House of representatives.

But I'm not aware of any country where the whole nation gets to vote directly for the PM, though granted in some countries the PMs powers are also much weaker with the president having more power.
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
49,927
1,910
113
BTW name another currency backed by gold other than the Franc.

The British pound and the US dollar.


Apart from some people living in the PM's constituency.

In Britain we have a superior system. We elect the political party that we want to lead us, not the person that we want to lead us. Unlike in America we concentrate mainly on party policies rather than on the personality of the party leader during elections. Party leaders usually reflect their parties' policies and so who is the leader of the party, and therfore which PM we have, is immaterial. What matters is what PARTY is in charge.

Still, by all means change to the other, inferior system. That'll just mean one less country using the superior British system.

Well not really a democracy since queenie isn't elected or appointed.

The British monarch, like the Canadian monarch, is a ceremonial head of state and not a politician. The monarch has few political powers.

But if the Canadians want to go down the same route as the Irish and waste people's time, not to mention money, on holding pointless elections for a ceremonial head of state then that's fine by me.

Although even the Irish system is superior to the US systen in the way that, like Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany and others, its Head of State and Head of Government are two different people with.

Apart from France the others have ceremonial heads of state.
 
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petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
117,425
14,310
113
Low Earth Orbit
The British pound and the US dollar.
Sorry Sunshine (I called you that because you never see any) but both are fiat currencies.

Interesting topic, you don't want to join the USA, but you want to become a mirror image of the US and it's Government.

Give in already... join the USA.. (Just remember I'm not the OP)

Annexation movements of Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A mirror image is opposite. It's like left and right proteins. You can't put a left hand glove on a right hand.
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
49,927
1,910
113
Sorry Sunshine (I called you that because you never see any) but both are fiat currencies.


I beg to differ.

You see, unlike you, I know there are huge stashes of gold in the Bank of England vaults and in Fort Knox.

It may only be worth a small fraction of the entire currency, but it's still the case that both the British pound and the American dollar are backed up by gold.

The British pound would have been even further backed up by gold had a certain socialist, economic illiterate, Scottish Chancellor not sold off 400 tons of Britain's gold reserves between 1999 and 2002 when the price of gold was at its cheapest for decades (the prices then were between $256 and $296 an ounce; and now are worth $1,615 per ounce today).
 
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