As I looked over some of my recent articles, it occurred to me that I hadn't written about this Queen's Dominion we call home in quite awhile.
Notwithstanding the obvious fact that this country has been stuck in an "ever widening gyre" of sanctimonious mediocrity since we gave up the Ensign for Pearson's pennant, I've decided to weigh into the current melee regarding electoral reform.
Let us begin by discarding the word electoral and saying political reform instead.
The first step that needs to be made without delay is that all the desks and chairs of our current House of Commons (and all desks and chairs in our provincial houses too) ought to be chopped and burned as unceremoniously as possible. Benches were good enough for John A., Churchill, and Thatcher and, by God, they are more than good enough for our current representatives at all first houses of government from sea to sea to sea.
As for political reform regarding elections, I suggest tripling our current number of representatives by a very easy method of electoral reform: awarding the second and third place in our current first past the post system with a seat in parliament as well. This will quash many of the now insane proclamations on all sides that the system is rigged and it has the wonderful catch that voters won't need to change any of their current voting behaviour in order to achieve results.
This move will in turn result in political power being re-entrenched to the local member of parliament versus the PMO; the simple fact is that people with different views that come from the same place tend to band together when out-of-town bullies try to push them around.
While I greatly respect our current representative's hearty attempt to voice everyone's concerns, there are new allies to be won by simply letting more people represent the same geographic area at once.
While we're giving our Parliament a long overdue shake-up, we'd best tell our senators that only five of them from any one province or territory will be allowed into the red chamber at a time. Whatever constitutional machinations are required to achieve this (I think we might simply need to bribe the Chief Justice at the Supreme Court of Canada to please be quiet) it could also be accompanied by a short nominations list from provincial legislatures combined with a randomized straw poll.
After confirming the leading nominees for Senate, we would of course have to move on to the Governor Generalship of Canada. This is where things become tricky, but again, power to the people combined with the Queen's final ascent might work well to get the sticky politics out of it.
Perhaps, during the federal election, an additional ballot with the top choices of each of the major parties and a blank space below for "write-ins" could be offered to every citizen.
Of course, the smartest choice for the Queen after all the ballots are accounted for would not be to pick the most popular choice by votes but rather the most widely approved choice for Governor General. By this methodology, we might very well beat the Americans at their own game - keeping the Crown while empowering the people and provinces all at once.
Thus, with these simple measures in play, Canada would finally have three houses of government which could actually claim widespread, democratic legitimacy from what they sit on to how they got their seats. It would be quite the sea change from the cabalish, oligarchic system we've grown accustomed to through the centuries - from the family compact to the opinion makers at CBC, our little dominion has rarely relied on the common man to make political choices.
Of course, all this would require first and foremost a self-respecting electorate that cared enough to select those who would enact the changes listed above.
And while I've not lost hope entirely in the wisdom of Canadian citizens, I will also admit I won't be holding by breath either.
