Judy Rebick writes that Canadian democracy is in crisis:
Thirty years ago on October 26, 1992, Canadians voted on the only pan-Canadian referendum in my lifetime. The Charlottetown Accord, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s second attempt to amend Canada’s Constitution was voted down by a 54 per cent majority. I doubt you will read about this extraordinary democratic event in the mainstream media because it was defeated despite or maybe because of the support it had from all of all the Premiers and all but one of the political parties. Moreover, all the daily newspapers across the country supported it. The people rose up Canadian style and voted no.
I write about it in 2022, not only to remember this extraordinary episode in Canadian history but because we are facing a similar crisis in democracy and once again need to rethink how our democracy works. Quebec just elected a majority government where the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) won a significant majority of the seats with only 37.32 per cent of the vote, the Doug Ford Tories in Ontario won a majority of seats with only 40 per cent of the votes, and the BCNDP just undemocratically disqualified a challenger to run as leader of the party thus avoiding a debate on the future of the province and installing a Premier without any election whatsoever.
Rebick remembers the Charlottetown Accord and how it went down to defeat:
In 1992, I was President of the National Action Committee (NAC) on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group and a major spokesperson for the “No” campaign. The experience of the Charlottetown referendum changed my ideas about democracy. As I travelled from coast to coast, speaking at countless meetings and on dozens of talk shows, I found an informed and articulate population. I may not always have agreed with people’s views, but it was clear that they had carefully thought out what they were saying. Many people would come with a marked up copy of the accord and written questions to ask the panelists who represented the two sides. I had never felt such intense political participation. Because people knew that they had a direct vote on the outcome, they got more involved. Since the difference didn’t fall along the usual left-right spectrum, people had to decide for themselves what they thought.
Canadian voters were energized. That is not the case today. We're sleepwalking through a very important time -- for Canada and the world.
Image: The Canadian Encyclopedia
2 comments:
Left a comment with Judy Rebick.
So I have a good friend who I really trust to do as I need
And I give him my ID and choice to vote for me next election.
And that will be seen as "a threat to the democratic process"
Yet if I go and vote myself for someone I can't really know; to have him vote on issues that haven't been discussed or even revealed yet; usually to his own advantage ... that's how it's done?
'Representative democracy' is democracy in name only and is more rule by gangs of corporate procurers with permissions stolen from the people. It is rule by those whose first job is eliminate the will of the people by relinquishing it to patsy meatsacks in a way that seems to give the people control.
Calling our system Democratic perpetuates the illusion.
It's pretty clear, lungta, that "the people" aren't making the decisions.
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