A colleague of mine was praising one of our members of parliament, Dick Harris, the other day, remarking that he was a very good individual who cared deeply about our community.
Let me say up front that I do think that Harris has tried his best as a member of parliament. But with regard to representing our community, I am not convinced.
On a number of occasions over the past 20 years, I have had interactions with both of our MPs and found that they were dismissive of my concerns or issues raised.
Harris once went so far as to say: "I know what my constituents want."
When I replied: "I am one of your constituents. And I am speaking on behalf of a sizeable group of them," he simply dismissed my concerns. T
his was back in the mid-90s before I ran for the NDP.
It displayed an attitude that seems to be settling over our political system in Canada. If you do not vote for those in power, nothing gets done. More to the point, if you are not a party member, you have no say at all even if you do vote for the right party.
This attitude has been on display in the run up to selecting the next Conservative candidate to replace Harris. I was told by one candidate that the only way I would have a voice in selecting our next MP for our region was to sign up for the Conservatives.
If the nomination process really is the arbiter of who is to be elected, then democracy truly has sunk to all-time lows in our ridings.
I would like to believe that it is not a sure thing.
But it isn't just locally where the "you're either with us or against us" attitude has prevailed. It seems to be standard operating procedure for the Prime Minister's Office. Prime Minster Stephen Harper seems to be saying to the vast majority of Canadians that they can either vote for him or get ignored.
I say this because of what has been happening with pipelines here in the north, down in Burnaby, and east in Ontario and Quebec. More and more people are protesting and being met with indifference or ridicule.
When Canadian citizens are willing to be arrested rather than allow a company to keep on drilling, maybe it is time for our government to ask a very simple question: "Are we truly acting in the public's best interest?"
It may be that Harper believes that he is. It may well be that those around him are assuring him that it is so. It may be that polling the party members tells him to keep going ahead.
But there are more people in this country that didn't vote for the Conservatives than did. Way more and they might just wake up for the next election.
The B.C. Liberals learned this lesson when they put the HST to a referendum. A sizeable majority thought the government had not acted in their best interest.
It would be interesting for the B.C. government to put the question of pipelines carrying crude oil and diluted bitumen to the test by holding a referendum. It might even be worth the expense.
My sense of it is that if people were asked the question: "Do you want to allow pipelines carrying crude oil or diluted bitumen to cross British Columbia where it can then be shipped to foreign markets by tanker?" the overwhelming majority would vote no.
I could be wrong but it would certainly be interesting and informative to find out.
Of course, no government would actually do this because it would severely limit their freedom to act. Governments are not really interested in representing the people. They are interested in representing the people that vote for them.
I don't think that Harper really does want to know the public's thoughts on the subject. Better that he can just keep telling himself that he knows what people want than ask and find out that he is wrong.
Of course, we live in a country with a parliamentary style of government. It is actually our local members of parliament that are supposed to be the ones that are holding the prime minister's feet to the fire.
This is certainly the case in English system, from whence our form of government came. It is not at all unusual for members of the British ruling party to call out the prime minister and to tell him or her that they disagree.
Maybe that does happen behind closed doors in Ottawa, but from the outside it would appear that this government's approach is batten down the hatches and full speed ahead.
After all, they know what the people want.
