Elections
Do you believe parliamentary rule has been eroding in Canada? If so, what will you do to reverse it? If not, why not?
Responses to the question: "Do you believe parliamentary rule has been eroding in Canada? If so, what will you do to reverse it? If not, why not?"
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6 Candidate Responses (top)
| Hamilton East-Stoney Creek | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Bob Green Innes | Yes | Yes, here is the list of reforms we believe are necessary:
The Canadian Action Party (CAP) has 5 pillars in its election platform: 1) democratic reform, 2) restoration of full sovereignty, 3) restoration of traditional civil rights, 4) Monetary system reform, and 5) preservation of the environment against corporate excess. CAP's democratic reform comprises 5 elements: 1) Swiss style referendum system, 2) open government 3) ban electronic voting machines, 4) 'Jury' selected Senate system and 5) Parliamentary reform. Parliamentary reform includes British Question Period system (rotating), all party legislation system, all party campaign advertising, citizen initiatives/recall, and proportional representation. We are convinced our policies are the right solutions for Canada, and had they been in place, we would not be in the situation we are in where the party of big business, party of big gummerment and the party of big unions, support corporate friendly policies, leaving the little guy to get squeezed by ever higher taxes and prices but lower wages and more regulations. |
| David Hart Dyke | Yes | I do. What can you say when we find ourselves in yet another federal election because for the first time in our history the ruling party is found to be in contempt of parliament? And that finding, by the way, was made by a person considered by many to be the greatest Speaker in Canada's history. |
| Gord Hill | Yes | Yes. A Minority Government would not be able to change Institutions without a vote in Parliament. The rules of Parliament are being missused and in the case of the Government closing Parliament or Prorogueing Parliament the Governor General should have requested a meeting with the other leaders to ask them if they wished to form a coalition Government, which they had already agreed to. |
| Greg Pattinson | No | There are only two means of interacting with others: consent and force. In a civilized society consent is the only reasonable means of interaction. Government is no exception. Government's role should be to protect individuals from force, not apply it arbitrarily. Consent leads to better utilization of resources than force. Consent allows innovation to flourish while force stifles it. Throughout history, societies that have recognized this more than others have become the world's super power. Nomadic hunter gatherer tribes that were innovative lead to agricultural societies. The Greeks innovation of philosophy laid the groundwork of reason and became the largest empire under Alexander the great. Magna Carta and the Roman senate lead to the Roman Empire. The French became the super power under Napoleon by establishing the Napoleonic Code. The British innovation of parliamentary supremacy that Canada inherited was a much freer society than the traditional supremacy of the king mentality that dominated in other nations. America improved on this and came up with constitutional supremacy. Canada could become the world's next superpower without the wars of the past through libertarian thinking to establish individual supremacy. For this to happen, parliamentary rule must erode to decentralise power to the lowest level - and in most cases that is the individual. The way we can accomplish this in Canada is to constrain the role of government to its proper function through constitutional reform and greater protection and expansion of charter rights. For example section 33 gives the government the power to infringe a person's rights in any way and by any means they want. This is not acceptable. |
| Wayne Marston | Yes | I find the increasing concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office to be nothing short of alarming. While the current Prime Minister did not create the present difficulties, he has certainly made them worse.
In fact, Canada is now in the midst of an election in part because Opposition MPs were no longer willing to tolerate attempts by the Prime Minister's Office to keep important information about the costs of government programs from us. One of the first things an NDP government would do would be to introduce a Parliament Act that will prevent the Prime Minister from requesting prorogation of Parliament when a confidence vote is before the House of Commons. Our act will also require a Parliamentary vote before the Prime Minister can seek a lengthy prorogation at other times. As I've already mentioned, the NDP will propose electoral reform to ensure Parliament better reflects the political preferences of Canadians. To this end we will propose a new, more democratic voting system that preserves the connection between MPs and their constituents, while ensuring parties are represented in Parliament in better proportion to how Canadians voted. Each vote will count. We will also start the national conversation that will result, we hope, in the abolition of the Senate. In the meantime, to limit Senate abuses, we will bar failed candidates and party insiders from being appointed to the Senate, and ban senators from fundraising for political parties. |
| Wendell Fields | Yes | Our Parliament is in crisis. Please see responses above for information on the MLPC's program for democratic renewal.
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Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 5 | 83.3% |
| No | 1 | 16.7% |
| Maybe | 0 | 0.0% |
3 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)
| Hamilton East-Stoney Creek | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bob Mann | ||
| Brad Clark | ||
| Michelle Stockwell | ||
