Democracy is all about government by the people for the people. It is
NOT government by political parties or ideas.
Parties are about a group of people with similar ideas getting together
in an attempt to sell their ideas to a majority of the people and to win
power to implement their ideas. So what if a particular party doesn’t
have a seat in the house; just because they sell some of there ideas to
some of the people at a particular time doesn’t mean they should have a
seat in the house. Democracy is also about majority rule.
Responsible government means the government is responsible to the
people who elect them. The representative of a particular riding must
also be responsible to the people of the riding who elected him/her.
Even today, the people of a riding expect their candidate to represent
the riding and speak for it.
Political parties demand loyalty to the party above all else; even to
having a member vote against his conscious and against the majority of
his constituents. That is what bothers me most about the party system
and the MMP idea of lists of party members from which sitting members
will be selected. No matter what method a party uses to put people on
the list and no matter how transparent it is, the fact remains it is the
party that is putting the names on the list and deciding the order. If
you are number 1 on the list then you are going to be elected. Lists
members are going to put the party first even over what is best for Ontario.
What does bother me about our FPTP system is the riding winner often
does not have a majority of the vote in the riding. I would like to see
a run off when no one has receive 50% +1 of the vote in a riding. I’m afraid that if MMP loses we will not get
another chance to change the system in our or our children’s life times.
But, I won’t vote for change for changes sake. I won’t vote to fix a
flawed system with an even more flawed system.
NOT government by political parties or ideas.
Parties are about a group of people with similar ideas getting together
in an attempt to sell their ideas to a majority of the people and to win
power to implement their ideas. So what if a particular party doesn’t
have a seat in the house; just because they sell some of there ideas to
some of the people at a particular time doesn’t mean they should have a
seat in the house. Democracy is also about majority rule.
Responsible government means the government is responsible to the
people who elect them. The representative of a particular riding must
also be responsible to the people of the riding who elected him/her.
Even today, the people of a riding expect their candidate to represent
the riding and speak for it.
Political parties demand loyalty to the party above all else; even to
having a member vote against his conscious and against the majority of
his constituents. That is what bothers me most about the party system
and the MMP idea of lists of party members from which sitting members
will be selected. No matter what method a party uses to put people on
the list and no matter how transparent it is, the fact remains it is the
party that is putting the names on the list and deciding the order. If
you are number 1 on the list then you are going to be elected. Lists
members are going to put the party first even over what is best for Ontario.
What does bother me about our FPTP system is the riding winner often
does not have a majority of the vote in the riding. I would like to see
a run off when no one has receive 50% +1 of the vote in a riding. I’m afraid that if MMP loses we will not get
another chance to change the system in our or our children’s life times.
But, I won’t vote for change for changes sake. I won’t vote to fix a
flawed system with an even more flawed system.
Eric C. Bow 