The following speech was presented to the "Citizen’s assembly of Ontario" when they were holding public hearings about a referendum on proportinal representation.
The critical flaw in your argument is this: Voting in a democracy is a right of all citizens and deciding NOT to vote is also a right. Not voting is tantamount to spoiling your ballot because the result is the same. Why would anyone waste time and energy voting for “none-of-the-above”? The system does preserve your anonymity in the ballot box.
This is the most important part. In Canada’s democracy, the field of candidates is open to anyone who decides he or she can no longer tolerate the abuses showered upon them by the various levels of government. We have the right to form our own political parties and present our own candidates and ideas to the public for their consideration. If the majority decides your policies are the most attractive, they can favour you by putting an ‘X’ beside your name that has been added to the ballot form.
The problem does not lie in the system as such (considering that we can affect changes to the system in our democracy).
Canada is a strong nation and the last time we fought a battle on our soil was in 1814. We sent our brave youth to shed their blood for freedom in many conflicts around the world but we have grown spoiled and weak over the years since we witnessed thousands of our soldiers dead on the battlefields in a single day. We have forgotten the sacrifices of the past and no longer have the stomach to fight for the preservation of our democracy. We have lost the skills to wage war and win. For example, we hesitate in Afghanistan and criticize our warriors for every war-like action. We try to turn our soldiers into day-care workers. The condition of our Armed Forces is disgraceful. The socialists, who are trying to destroy our democracy, convince us we should be ashamed of our past rather than be proud of our victories.
But worst of all, they have coerced us and cowed us into silence and ‘sheepdom’.
In a nutshell, we have squandered the inheritance left to us as Canadians and that is the why we don’t present alternatives to the three, rotting, political parties. We have the governments we deserve and only after we lose everything will Canadians appreciate the sacrifices of past generations.
So, don’t blame the system … blame the Canadians who are too fat, lazy and dependant to care to use it for preserving their freedoms. What we see in this nation today was certainly not the intent and design of our forefathers.
All the Best
PS. I will be writing about “bureaucrats” on one of the first pages of the Trillium Alliance website.
zorkthehun May 1, 2012 at 12:29 pm Edit
Hi David,
I don’t see the flaw (critical or otherwise 🙂 ) – I see a different question, a question that I was already planning to address in a separate post.
Your reply also gave me another two new subject ideas.
Here are all three coming soon to this blog near you:
Why elections shouldn’t matter? (and how to get there)
Why should voting be a privilege? (and how to do it)
What it means to be Canadian? (to an immigrant like me)
Zork
David Strutt May 1, 2012 at 1:13 pm Edit
Well, Zork …. I doubt politicians would care about a NOTA vote because it would change nothing for them, or us. Unfortunately, politicians never win elections, they merely fill voids left by others who are voted out. I’m going to stick to my opinion that adding a NOTA box to the ballot would achieve little more than create additional paper. I would rather try presenting folks with a fresh, clean idea of what government really should be. Huge job!
I very much enjoy reading your articles whether I agree with your position or not and I applaud you for making the effort to motivate Canadians, or at least remind them of who they used to be, before Pierre Elliot Trudeau did to us what Obama is now doing to the Americans. Even though our political systems are quite different, we suffer the same malady of complacency. We have a lot of work ahead of us to rally normal, hard-working Canadians toward chopping back the growing radical, socialist movement in our country.
David Strutt May 1, 2012 at 9:05 am Edit
Hello Zork,
The critical flaw in your argument is this: Voting in a democracy is a right of all citizens and deciding NOT to vote is also a right. Not voting is tantamount to spoiling your ballot because the result is the same. Why would anyone waste time and energy voting for “none-of-the-above”? The system does preserve your anonymity in the ballot box.
This is the most important part. In Canada’s democracy, the field of candidates is open to anyone who decides he or she can no longer tolerate the abuses showered upon them by the various levels of government. We have the right to form our own political parties and present our own candidates and ideas to the public for their consideration. If the majority decides your policies are the most attractive, they can favour you by putting an ‘X’ beside your name that has been added to the ballot form.
The problem does not lie in the system as such (considering that we can affect changes to the system in our democracy).
Canada is a strong nation and the last time we fought a battle on our soil was in 1814. We sent our brave youth to shed their blood for freedom in many conflicts around the world but we have grown spoiled and weak over the years since we witnessed thousands of our soldiers dead on the battlefields in a single day. We have forgotten the sacrifices of the past and no longer have the stomach to fight for the preservation of our democracy. We have lost the skills to wage war and win. For example, we hesitate in Afghanistan and criticize our warriors for every war-like action. We try to turn our soldiers into day-care workers. The condition of our Armed Forces is disgraceful. The socialists, who are trying to destroy our democracy, convince us we should be ashamed of our past rather than be proud of our victories.
But worst of all, they have coerced us and cowed us into silence and ‘sheepdom’.
In a nutshell, we have squandered the inheritance left to us as Canadians and that is the why we don’t present alternatives to the three, rotting, political parties. We have the governments we deserve and only after we lose everything will Canadians appreciate the sacrifices of past generations.
So, don’t blame the system … blame the Canadians who are too fat, lazy and dependant to care to use it for preserving their freedoms. What we see in this nation today was certainly not the intent and design of our forefathers.
All the Best
PS. I will be writing about “bureaucrats” on one of the first pages of the Trillium Alliance website.
zorkthehun May 1, 2012 at 12:29 pm Edit
Hi David,
I don’t see the flaw (critical or otherwise 🙂 ) – I see a different question, a question that I was already planning to address in a separate post.
Your reply also gave me another two new subject ideas.
Here are all three coming soon to this blog near you:
Why elections shouldn’t matter? (and how to get there)
Why should voting be a privilege? (and how to do it)
What it means to be Canadian? (to an immigrant like me)
Zork
David Strutt May 1, 2012 at 1:13 pm Edit
Well, Zork …. I doubt politicians would care about a NOTA vote because it would change nothing for them, or us. Unfortunately, politicians never win elections, they merely fill voids left by others who are voted out. I’m going to stick to my opinion that adding a NOTA box to the ballot would achieve little more than create additional paper. I would rather try presenting folks with a fresh, clean idea of what government really should be. Huge job!
I very much enjoy reading your articles whether I agree with your position or not and I applaud you for making the effort to motivate Canadians, or at least remind them of who they used to be, before Pierre Elliot Trudeau did to us what Obama is now doing to the Americans. Even though our political systems are quite different, we suffer the same malady of complacency. We have a lot of work ahead of us to rally normal, hard-working Canadians toward chopping back the growing radical, socialist movement in our country.
Thanks for being there.
David