Democracy

Rant 2: Democracy

Democracy is one of the greatest man-made inventions known to, well, man. It allows us, the people, to have a direct say in how we are governed. Many countries are still under a dictator, fake democracy, or a monarchy. When there are absolute rulers, the people suffer; their needs are ignored. If one looks at the absolute monarchs of Europe, Castro’s Cuba, China and various other countries, the people have NO say in how they will live their lives. I would like to take this brief moment to say that I like Castro. I think he has done alot of good in Cuba. However, the people’s wishes and desires are ignored. In all non-democratic societies, the people are forced to abide by the state’s rules without any consultation with the people. Time and time again we, in Canada, hear of immigrants coming and falling in love with the democratic process because they were denied the choice in their home country. Thus, there must be something fundamentally GOOD about democracy. Simply put, democracy is an empowering idea which allows people to decide their own fate, more or less.
Pure democracy is founded on the principle of majority rule regardelss of the wishes of anyone else. Modern democracy has evoled into a more humane democray. The rule of majority is what prevails, but there is also the protection of the minority. (There’s a specific term for this, but I can’t remember it right now). For example, 53% of a country cannot vote to allow genocide of the minority; the rights of the minority are still protected.
Having said all of that, democracy is sick; it risks being eliminated by small steps. Disenfranchisement of the system by the people are going to unravel centuries of fighting and passion by the people of Athens, Rome, England, and the rest of Europe. All of these societies had to, in some capacity or another, engage in some sort of struggle for the engagement and protection of democracy. In Athens it was much easier: the people adopted it fairly easily. However, there would have been dissenters saying that it would make them weak and there is a necessity for a strong ruler to make decisions quickly to allow for the protection of Athens. However, democracy still prevailed.
Today, many of the democracies in the world are going through a stage of decline, in terms of voter turn out. It is in my opinion that voter turnout percetages are one of the best ways to gage democarcy’s health: a low turnout on election day means people are not engaged or don’t care about the results enough to vote, and vice versa for a high turn out. Canada has been experiencing falling voter turnouts, for various reasons.
I think there are 2 major problems with democracy in Canada, especially. 1) the antequated representation system and 2) apathy.
Let’s start with the first one, the antequated representation system. Currently, in Canada and all of the provinces, we use the Single Member Plurality system (also refered to as First-Past-the-Post). Essentially it means who ever receives the most votes in a riding (electoral district, constituency, area) wins that seat- regardless of wether they receive a majority or not. Thus, a party can win a mojortiy government with only 40% of the vote, and it has happened-ALOT! The question we must ask is, how can a government win 50%+ of the seats, with a minority of the vote? Yes, the governing party received 40% of the vote (which would be more than all of the other parties combined) but that also means that 60% of the voters did NOT vote for the ruling party. However, the ruling party can rule with an iron fist and do as they please, for they have the majority of seats in Parliament.
This has GOT to change.  We, the people, deserve to have our will properly and proportionaly represented in Parliament. Essentially how the system SHOULD work is that 40% ofthe vote means 40% of the seats (aka representatives). There are varoious methods of accomplishing this, as in different systems, but regardless of which Proportional Representation (PR) system is adopted, it needs to be adopted. If a party wants to get a majority, then they should have to fight for it- majority should mean 51% of the vote, for 51% of the seats. If that threshold cannot be reached, then a coalition should be entered into, or face ruling with a minority government. This opens up a HUGe debate which could go on forever (ie the usefulness of minority governments, and so on and so forth) but it is better to have the will of the people represented, then to have a skewed representation of the poeple wilth laws being passed over the majority with only a minority of people supporting.
The system needs to change. To give people the empowering abilities a democracy offer, the system needs to be renewed. People need to want to go to the voting booth and say to themselves that "YES! my vote DOES count so I wil vote how I want, and not how I SHOULD vote to prevent a certain party from getting in." There is a severe flaw when people can’t vote according to their convictions, beliefs, tradtitions, or feelings because they are afraid of another party getting into power. Bring in PR or some sort and give peole the freedom to vote as they please without the fear of a differing ideology assuming majority power with 40% of the vote.
This could go one forever, but I want to move on to the second reason democracy is sick, and that is apathy.
Simply put, people in general are experiencing apathy with politics. People are not engaged with their politics. And so people just fall behind in caring for what they should b e standing up for. The CBC is taking a financial hit because the government won’t give them more money; the high speed train between Windsor and Quebec City is a no go because the government says there is no need for it; health care is continuously taking hits because governments aren’t standing up to the private movement; education is getting more and more expensive, and the list goes on and on. The fact is people may care, buat are too lazy to get involved. 
Voters feel that after voting on election day, their deed is done. In a perfect world this would be true. However, there are forces at work that alters how governments work, ie lobby groups and special interests. We complain constantly that the government is just selling out, yet we don’t do anything beyond coffee shop bitching to change our lives.
The fact is, democracy takes work- it’s not a given. Democracy can be taken away. We need to do our part beyond election day to keep our elected officials in check.
We need to bombard them with letter, petitions, personal meetings, emails, protests and marches, etc to get them to listen to us. The loudest voices succeed and if there are only a few people making the most noise, then they will get their eay, regardless of wether they represent the majority or not. As an educated society, we need to get off our butts and start sending a loud message to Ottawa (or Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Montreal, etc) that we are not going to go quietly into the night.
Everyone needs to pick an issue they are interested in, and become passionate about it. Gay rights, education, health care, poverty, defence, foreign affairs, the environment- regardless of your stand point, start communicating with elected officials to bring about change. Participate in marches and protests, attend information sessions, hold an information session- anything to get your voice heard and your opinion across. The government cannot read our minds; they may tap our phone lines, read our online materials, but they cannot read our minds. If we don’t voice our concern, they will not act how we want them to. By allowing them to get away free after election day, we allow our representatives and government to act as they please, since they aren’t bound by the people.
As a society, we need to become more engaged in our system. If we want to see change or issues that we care about taken care of, WE need to take the initiative to tell our governments where to go and how to get there.
I challenge everyone who reads this to pick one issue and send a letter to your representative (be it municipal, provincial, federal, etc) to express your opinion- to further your agenda as a human being with the education and right to complain. The right to speak up. The right to have an opinion.
Democracy WILL fail if we do not take control and stop its erosion.