4 - Wednesday, April 24, 1991 - North Shore News

Canada’s sad democratic state

EVERY TIME the issue of direct democracy is raised some columnist somewhere pooh-pools the idea, usually by recycling the idea that politicians are elected to repre- sent their constituents and that they have to be able to make tough decisions on the spot.

Why de their hands by making them accountable to the people who elected them, except four years later?

There is considerable nostalgia for the days when politicians paid more attention to the wishes of their constituents than they do to- day. I think this harkens back to an era when governments didn’t lavishly spend taxpayers’ money to brainwash the masses.

Nowadays, once a government has settled on policy — that is to say, the prime minister or premier and his or her cabinet and caucus have figured out behind closed doors what they really want to do, never mind what they might have yapped about during the election campaign — the floodgates of public relations funding are kicked open to convince the populace that this is, indeed, what they wanted all along, even if they didn’t quite know it.

The concept of cabinet solidari- ty hes a certain noble ring to it, but in fact what it amounts to is a pact between members of the cabal to not spill the beans on their secret machinations. Besides, if anybody breaks ranks, they can be immediately booted out by the boss.

Ic has always struck me as peculiar that at the apex of our ‘democratic’ institutions, you should find a thoroughly undemocratic arrangement.

The prime minister or premier has absolute power over any member of the cabinet, and is ac- tually more of a king with a short life expectancy than anything else.

Moreover, he or she operates in secrecy and has the power, through orders-in-council, to make or unmake laws without resorting to the messy forum of parliament or a legislature.

In short, our democracy is a seriously flawed system of gov- ernment. The problem, as so deft- ly put by Winston Churchill, is that the other systems are worse.

He was, of course, speaking in broad terms. Compared with raw monarchism, theocracy or dic- tatorship, democracy is wonder- ful.

There are, however, degrees of dernocracy. And the degree we have in Canada is sadly lacking, compared with other jurisdictions.

Switzerland, the United States and Australia are far more demo- cratic than Canada. The reason is that these countries make use of referendums and plebiscites. They don’t simply rely on ‘‘good politi- cians”’ to do the right thing.

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While not used at the federal level in the U.S., referendums are frequently used at the state level.

Some 23 American states, as well as the District of Columbia, grant their citizenry the right to initiate statewide legislation. In another 25 states, voters have the power to originate referendums by popular petition.

Probably the best known exam- ple of this is Proposition 13, the California initiative passed in 1978, which forced reductions in property taxes, triggering similar tax revolt referendums across the U.S,

The right to initiate these measures doesn’t guarantee they’II pass, uf course. The failure of the “Big Green’’ initiative in Califor- nia a few mozths back is a perfect example.

It might have succeeded, in one fell swoop, in revolutionizing California's relationship to its en- vironment, but a majority of the people decided they weren’t ready for eco-topia.

The point is, serious political change came a lot closer to hap- pening than it has anywhere in places like Canada, where the only initiatives come from the top

Mapa

HUGH

STARK

@ CUSTODY

down.

As we have seen repeatedly, it doesn’t matter what a party pledges in opposition, by the time they come to power and inherit an entrenched bureaucracy, it is only a matter of time before they begin to quack like the duck they just evicted.

The Swiss have been using ref- erendums for centuries.

They can vote on any subject they wish, at any time. All a per- son in Switzerland has to do is gather 100,000 signatures on a petition, and they can set the pro- cess in motion for a nation-wide vote to change the constitution.

Likewise, anyone who can col- lect 50,000 signatures can call for a referendum challenging any newly-passed federal law.

In other words, the power of the elected officials can be check- ed at any time by determined citi- zens. The Swiss don’t have to wait four years to seek revenge and then still not be avle to effect change.

ft can be argued that neither the U.S. nor Switzerland is a parliamentary democracy like ours, but Australia falls into the same category as Canada, yet has made frequent use of national and state-level referendums.

In this century, the Australians have voted 36 times on constitu- tional amendmeats. They have also had referendunis on the na- tional anthem and conscription.

According to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, referendums are “not the Canadian way.’’ Like so much he says, this is simply not true.

There may be no provisions in the Constitution Act for national referendums, but all that is needed is parliamentary approval, such as was done in 1898 to gauge public attitudes on prohibition, and again in 1942 to settle the con- scription issue, permitting Mackenzie King to go ahead and draft Canadians for military ser- vice.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C. and Manitoba have acts providing for plebiscites and referendums. So what Mulroney really means is that these methods are not the

KIRSTIE

MACLISE

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Eastern Canadian way.

As we head toward the con- stitutional showdown between Quebee and the rest of the coun- try, the time for a national refer- endum is nearing.

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