Virtually from the day Alison Redford won the leadership of the PC Party and became Alberta’s 14th premier many political watchers of ALL stripes have been saying Albertans deserve better!
Last month Premier Redford agreed: Albertans do deserve better!
We all need to be involved if we want the better governance that we deserve, however even if we are involved, saying that we deserve better is the easy part.
The $64 question or in Alberta’s case the $47 Billion dollar question is: How do we, or a leader or a political party decide: What is better? What is the best thing to do?
The first part of the answer was the foundation of the PC’s success for at least 25 years. It is an important pillar of the Wildrose Parties current success: That is a member based policy development process.
A broad based policy development process has two main benefits:
- It allows concerned and involved citizens to help shape the policy direction of the party.
- Secondly, it allows a party, its leadership and its elected representatives to ‘quantify’ what they are hearing from party members.
The second, and previously missing part of the equation has two parts and is being eloquently articulated by Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith and now independent MP. Brent Rathgeber.
Last point first. Brent Rathgeber spoke at ‘The Essentials of Freedom Conference’ and he articulated his view that we have to bring honor back to the role of being an ‘elected legislator’. The entire speech can be seen at http://freedomtalk.ca/videos/brent-rathgeber-fixing-broken-democracy.html but his main point was/is that we need to allow, in fact encourage, elected MP’s/ MLA’s to propose legislation and then allow an intelligent, respectful discussion by all members on BOTH sides of the house.
MP Rathgeber’s proposal to ‘honor legislators’ combined with Danielle Smith’s proposal/promise of ‘a free vote’ allows MLA’s to propose legislation that has not been approved by the party membership but may be very important to the MLA and /or his constituents.
As Rob Anderson did with his Parliamentary Budget Officer proposal.
Also, by encouraging MLA’s to have an intelligent discussion, followed by a ‘free vote’, individual MLA’s can vote against a proposal if they or their constituents are opposed to it.
As Drew Barnes did against the PBO.
By allowing her MLA’s to both ‘propose’ and ‘oppose’ Danielle Smith is creating a framework for leadership that will bring not only fiscal responsibility but intelligent, meaningful discussion and legislative accountability to the next generation of Alberta’s political leaders.
Danielle Smith, Drew Barnes and Rob Anderson are building a team and a process that has the potential to bring a new level of intelligent, respectful discourse/leadership to the legislature of Alberta.
Ultimately, we do get the government that we deserve. If we want better government, we must be informed and involved.
If Albertans could effectively and efficiently implement a "free vote" form of representative democracy, with the elected answerable to the electorate we would be the envy of democratic nations!
ReplyDeleteThis would be a difficult if not impossible undertaking. Many conceptions of how democracy functions would need to be re-learned. Prior agreement by all would be required, as would perseverance and penultimate patience. These required of politicians and public servants but specifically the general electorate would need to assume an active and informed role in determining their future. They could no longer blame the politicians without blaming themselves.
A response by Mr. Burpee to governing by "free vote" as some have proposed would be enlightening. Could this fix what ails us?
ReplyDeleteMaybe government via Facebook? The local responses to the "hair ball" issue shows how well that would work. And what about response to the Rotarian attempt to build adjoining OMG St. Mike's? Are we really capable of determining our own fate or do we in fact NEED those inconsiderate and incompetent politicians? Judge not ...