How would you categorize the health of our democracy? Would you say it's in strapping good shape? That it's not an endurance athlete but can hold its own? That it's hurt, injured and in need of intervention?
Did you vote during the last federal or provincial election? If you didn't, did that fact have to do with not believing anything would change as a result of your vote?
Okay, yes, enough with the questions. Still, they assist in getting a valid point across. We have a fine system of government, but it does need a nip here and a tuck there. Voter participation has been trending downwards. Parliament is sometimes dysfunctional. Politicians sometimes appear to focus inwards rather than engaging the citizenry.
A full package aimed at democratic reform might be the answer. However, it's a difficult prospect at the best of times. After all, we don't want to compound any existing dysfunction, and further, opinions on how to proceed vary wildly. Some laud the idea of an elected senate, others wish to abolish the “first past the post” electoral system.
iCitizen welcomes the debate, here and elsewhere. It is obvious however, that some things can be done in short order to infuse our democratic system with some added representative purpose, such that it is truer to what it espouses – the idea that deputies are elected to represent us all. As a policy prescription, that is the essence of Open Season.
Open Season is the idea that in any parliament, which is a periodic gathering of our deputies, a portion of time ought to be set aside in which the government of the day relinquishes control of the agenda so that simple members of parliament, simple deputies, can bring forward ideas, as bills for consideration and passage by all other deputies regardless of political affiliation. Of course, exceptions might have to be made that Ministers of the Crown will vote in line with the prevailing stance of Her Majesty's government, but all else would be free to consider and cast a ballot on a pre-selected number of matters.
As things currently stand, bills by simple members of parliament are called “private members' bills”, and regardless of the amount of work that goes into them, they tend to die an assured death since the government of the day controls the agenda, and in a majority government, the voting patterns as well. In essence, in a majority government, we elect a “philosopher king” for a pre-determined amount of time, a person granted a vast amount of concentrated power. Open Season would not radically alter that fact, but would instead specify a season in every parliament in which the legislative component of that power is given over to the deputies of the citizens, that they may act in the interest of their constituents.
Of course, there would likely be more private members bills than time to deliberate on them all. Further, such bills may need to be pre-vetted for potential legal impact. Selection could be by a ranking vote of the deputies, and vetting could be undertaken by an independent organ.
The result would be a season without political parties, a season of commonality, a season of the intellect, a season simply for citizens, and out of that season, laws that carry us all towards ever greater ideals, laws that by their very presence indicate to us that the election of members of parliament retains meaning, remains worthwhile.
Your comments, and ideas on this idea, are welcome. Open Season is a policy position of iCitizen, and in the name of all authors and subscribers, a position that will be advocated before Canadian governments – federal and provincial. So, join us, the time for change is now, and you are that change. Your time, is now.