We don't need no stinking Senate. Not even a Triple E Senate.
"So to elect senators in Canada under the existing system would serve both to entrench and exacerbate an existing inequity," he said. "I think it's time for us to abolish the Senate in Canada."
It is the vestigial remains of the old British Aristocracy, the House of Lords. In much the same way we have the vestigial remains of our reptilian past in our brains. It comes from the power of the rentier class over the rising bourgeois in England. To be a Senator you must be over 30, own $4000 dollars in property, and be a Canadian citizen. Reformed it becomes a bourgeois institution delayed.
Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert said on Wednesday that it's irrelevant whether senators are elected or appointed because the chamber is ineffectual as it stands.
We need real political reform in Canada, including proportional representation, the right of recall (as the David Emerson affair has proven), and the right to referendum. All demands made by the labour left at the turn of last century. Which were then ripped off by the right wing populists of Preston Mannings Reform Party. Now joyfully abandoned by the Harpocrites in Ottawa.
We must create sovereign/ popular constituent assemblies, not controlled by the State or political parties, to reform this 'Con' federation to take into consideration of workers and citizens rights, municipality rights, aboriginal nations and the Quebec nation, and to reform provincial powers so that they match national reforms.
1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien
Among the most important and useful truths, those that pertain the the better political organization of a society are at the forefront. They are among those of which it is a shame to have not studied carefully, and cowardly to dare not proclaim, when we believe that those we possess are true and therefore useful.
The good political doctrines of modern times, I find them condensed, explained and delivered for the love of peoples and for their regeneration, in a few lines of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, and the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.
II • Democratic Renewal
In order for the people to exercise their sovereignty and govern themselves, there is an immediate need to: PROCLAIM A NEW AND MODERN CONSTITUTION
This new and modern constitution must enshrine:
• The rights and duties of all citizens without any discrimination on the basis of language, race, national origin, religion, gender, lifestyle, ability, age, wealth or on any other basis;
• The right of Quebec to self-determination, up to and including secession;
• The hereditary rights of the Aboriginal peoples; the injustices of the past and the harm done to them must be redressed through the provision of indemnity payments;
• The rights of the national minorities of Canada, including the recognition of the equality of all languages and cultures and the creation of conditions for their flourishing;
• The vesting of sovereignty in the people.
To enable the people of Canada to exercise their sovereignty, this new and modern constitution must lay down as a fundamental principle that there can be:
• No Election Without Selection.
Under the fundamental law that elected representatives and all institutions must be subordinate to the electorate, the constitution must enshrine:
• The Right to an Informed Vote;
• The Right to Recall;
• The Right to Initiate Legislation.
These laws must be turned into reality through the creation of institutions which enable the electors to exercise their right to elect and to be elected and facilitate their maximum participation in governance. A Canada-Wide Electoral Commission, as well as Electoral Committees in each constituency would be bodies to replace Elections Canada. The finances and facilities currently provided to Elections Canada and to Members of Parliament to operate their constituency offices would be reallocated to fund the functioning of the Canada-Wide Electoral Commission and Electoral Committees. The Members of Parliament would conduct their affairs through the Electoral Committees to which they would be subordinate.
The Canada-Wide Electoral Commission and the Electoral Committees would be entrusted with two key tasks: 1) Guaranteeing that all electors can exercise their right to elect and be elected; and 2) Ensuring that the elected representatives are subordinate to the electors and serve their interests. These bodies would involve a large number of people, especially in the task of ensuring the subordination of the elected to the electors.
The new and modern constitution must establish:
• The rights of all citizens and residents by virtue of being human.
In providing a guarantee to these rights, the constitution must hold the society, and the governments which represent that society, responsible to provide people with the highest possible standard of living within the existing conditions. It must also set out the aim of raising this standard to higher levels, consistent with the development of society, so as to meet the ever-increasing needs of the people for health care, education, culture and other necessities of life. The constitution must guarantee the recognition of the claims of all people on society by virtue of being human, as well as the claims based on the conditions of their collectivity in the case of women, youth, workers and all other collectives in the society.
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1 comment:
So what you are saying is that the bible needs to be revised to say And in the Begining was the Dollar and God was the first Capitalist, he said go forth and multiple, so that thou mayest gain profit. And to think I never knew thats what they meant by Profits in the Bible. But wait what about False Profits?!
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