Category: Democracy

Defending democracy through public engagement

In my years of political observation, I have come to realize that elected officials individually have little opportunity to influence public policy. At senior levels of government, power has concentrated in the offices of the first minister. In local governments and school boards, In local governments and school boards, power is held largely by professional administrators. Public input is tolerated by the power holders, but not welcomed…

What time is it?

Co-authors Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of economics at University College London, and economist Rosie Collington think democracy is endangered by the growing involvement of consultants in public policy development and implementation.

Democracy

Democracy is a system of government not immune to challenges and threats. In recent years, there have been concerns about the health of democracy in a number of countries, as well as the rise of populist movements and strongman leaders who challenge democratic institutions and norms. Additionally, issues such as disinformation and foreign interference in elections have raised concerns about the integrity of democratic processes.

Democracy is fragile

Government by the people for the people is more myth than reality in Canada and in the politically troubled country south of here. We cannot talk about our governments being representative democracies when a majority of the proxies we elect rank interests of their parties and their sponsors above interests of their electors.

Dysfunctional duopoly

Far from being “broken,” our political system is doing precisely what it’s designed to do. It wasn’t built to deliver results in the public interest or to foster policy innovation, nor does it demand accountability for failure to do so. Instead, most of the rules that shape day-to-day behavior and outcomes have been perversely optimized—or even expressly created—by and for the benefit of the entrenched duopoly at the center of our political system…

Enough said

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.” That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at the opening of the 1981 Woman to Woman conference.

Democratic delusion

“Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.” Even with contribution limits, generous as they are, government remains biased toward serving interests of prosperous citizens…

Oh Canada !

Section 2(b) of the Charter states that “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: … freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Everyone, […]