Warning: Rant Ahead
Okay. I know I've ranted about this particular topic before, but it's been a while and I'm good and worked up, so too bad.
What has me so worked up, you may ask? Well, it's Stephen Harper's backdoor "elected" Senate reform crap. It's crap. It's a copy of the American system and it's crap. Did I mention that it's crap?
Voter turnout in Canada has dropped to 60% (that's a 15% drop since the 1980s). In the U.S. it's even worse - House elections have a turnout usually between 50% and 60% and Senate elections have a turnout usually between 35% and 40%. So moving to an elected Senate in Canada would serve what purpose exactly?
My biggest problem with this issue is that when it comes to the topic of politics, people seem to assume that ELECTED means the same thing as DEMOCRACY.
Well folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those two words are not synonymous.
Democracy implies popular participation. If you only have half the population participating, that's not democratic.
Stephen Harper - and the other politicians out there - ought to be focussing on why so few people show up to vote. My personal opinion is that there are two camps of non-voters. Camp one is made up of the disillusioned people, who would actually vote if there was someone that they felt was representing their issues. Camp two is made up of the disconnected people, who just want to spend quality time with their big screen TVs and don't really care what happens, so long as no one bothers them.
That kind of profound apathy scares the crap out of me. It makes it possible for people like Stephen Harper and George Bush to run the show.
We need to talk about politics more. We need to educate kids about politics. We need to teach people that it is possible to make a difference, if we could just take our collective heads out of our collective asses and look up for a little while. Make eye contact with your neighbours. Our government exists for us, not for the power hungry jerks like Stephen Harper or Paul Martin. They are there to serve us. It's high time people remembered that.
And before you start bitching about the evils of an unelected Senate - take some time to actually read the transcripts of the debates and the committees of the Senate. Many of our senators are dedicated to the work that they do and they always spend more time examining the issues and talking to witnesses than the House of Commons ever does.
Alright. End rant.