Democracy

[bob the dog]

That's a lot of words to not an answer a question.
You will be happy when your vote is worth 1,000 votes in Toronto? 10,000?

Modern thought for the modern age.

How about relocating the capitol from Ottawa for a change? It's been 150 years.

The western provinces might feel less poorly of the feds if they were headquartered in Calgary and it's not a big deal to get a federal grant to remodel the Saddledome. Simple and easy. What's not to like?

 

[Hoid]

Yes what a splendid use of tens (hundreds?) of millions of tax dollars.

I can see where a real government austerity guy like you and taxslave would be onboard that one.

 

[taxslave]

It would sure cut down on the transfer payments. Probably would have been cheaper than renovating the PMs guesthouse and the GG's mansion.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Yeah, I'll stick with the devil we know.
I'm sure we have each other's sympathy, but I'm also sure we're both saying "you're on your own."
Will Rogers said "In the electoral process, each party picks the worst man it can find for the job, then the people elect the worse of the two."
And y'all have, what, five or so?

At least 5 we can easily name. One of those five holds three seats out’a 338, but is a major party.

 

[Mowich]

Or rather, representative democracy. A republic, in which those in authority are elected by and exercise power on behalf of the people.

But what are the people? Certainly in Canada and the U.S., "the people" (eligible voters) was a tiny fraction of the population not long ago. And still is far from all the people.

In the U.S., there are three branches of government, one of which is divided into two chambers. Only the House of Representatives and the Senate are remotely democratically chosen. The President is elected by the states, not by the people, and the Supreme Court is selected by the President, with a limited veto by the Senate, which effectively means the majority party in the Senate.

As I understand it, in Canada only the House of Commons is democratically elected. The Senate is effectively chosen by the PM with input from the HoC (especially the party or parties in government), the executive is chosen by the House of Commons, and the judiciary is chosen by the government and effectively rubber-stamped by the GG. (Correct me if I'm wrong on that.)

So. . . two questions arise about "democracy."

1. Whom should be included and whom excluded from the electorate?

2. What effect should an individual's vote have on the composition of the government (I mean "government" in the sense of those who make, enforce, and interpret laws, not the committee appointed to run Canada).

I suppose the purest form of "democracy" would be a unicameral legislature chosen from legislative districts (ridings) of precisely the same population, with no limits on any citizen voting (or possibly even any person voting). If one has a separate executive, like the U.S., that would be by direct, popular, national election. But that has never been the case, isn't now, and we have commenters on this board who want to skew it even further, constructing or adjusting systems so that people in low-population-density areas would have more representation per capita.

So, I'm interested in thoughts on the two questions above.

I don't suppose it would do me any good to ask the usual suspects to limit themselves to actual thought, and not howl bumper-sticker slogans demanding minor readjustments to the current, unequal system designed to make it either more or differently unequal.

1. I don't believe criminals in prison should have the right to vote. So they would be on my exclusion list. Non-Canadians and those not of legal voting age would be my only other exclusions.
2. Not sure what you mean by the 'committee appointed to run Canada', Tec. I'm struggling with the idea of how my vote could affect the composition of the government other than to help my candidate get elected. I am most certainly not for complicating voting by filling ballots with numerous referendums which is about the only way I see a vote translating into the selection of a certain person for a certain job.

 

[Mowich]

OK, what does mean equal representation?

I promise no tricks and no traps in this thread. It is obviously true that urbanites and rural folk can have very different interests, and that the populations favor the urbanites in a straight "one person, one vote" system.

But is that unfair? Should one man who has 20,000 hectares have a greater say than one who has 40 square metres?

I'm listening.

I'll deal with the state/province vs. national government thing later. That's too many balls in the air at once.

One person. One vote.
Urban vs rural areas need very different governments due to the various issues inherent to their locations. The area in which I reside is part of the Cariboo Regional District - a locally elected body of people that oversee issues in our region, raise taxes and make local bylaws. They are very effective as members live in the area and thus have first hand knowledge of the many issues facing rural residents.

 

[Mowich]

It sounds almost as if you're saying "If the guy I want doesn't win, I have no representation."

Do you think that a tourism business owner will necessarily ignore or disfavor resource-extraction to the benefit of tourism?

Here in La La land there is every chance a tourism business owner would do just that, Tec - depending of course upon where that business is located. Here in the Interior the opposite would Likely be true - the Left Coast is an entirely different matter.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

One person. One vote.
Urban vs rural areas need very different governments due to the various issues inherent to their locations. The area in which I reside is part of the Cariboo Regional District - a locally elected body of people that oversee issues in our region, raise taxes and make local bylaws. They are very effective as members live in the area and thus have first hand knowledge of the many issues facing rural residents.

Two principles I think would lead to better democracy. . .

1. Resolve all issues at the lowest level possible. Speed limits? Local. Some environmental and resource-allocation issues? Provincial. Other environmental and resource-allocation issues? National.

2. Any official who represents or has power over a given jurisdiction (township/city/county, riding/district, state/province, national) should be elected by direct, popular election of all the voters in that jurisdiction.