Just Blowing Steam

As my few regular readers (all 2 or 3 of you) know I am busy outside this time of year cleaning up our trails and repairing folks lawnmowers, thus the blogging thing kinda goes by the wayside! But feeling guilty for not posting anything for a week or so I WAS going to tell you of our gardening efforts and the like, but I started thinking about our MPs and MPPs workload and what they will be doing shortly. My best guess is “taking a break” after all summer is upon us, the federal government has had parliament sitting for now what, 4 months, thats way more than last year, and if in recession there could be no vote of confidence called. On our blog Democracy under Fire I try and be reasonable, non partisan and factional, but make no mistake I am just as pissed off at various political parties and individuals as the next guy and once in a while need to have a good rant. This personal blog allows me to do that whilst still retaining a modicum of self respect on the other one!

So that said here are my thoughts upon the parliamentarians workload and what they do for us, its not all bad, but I suspect that the guys we elect will like it less than their (generally) hard working staff who are the ones that deal with the electorate on a day to day basis (except when the electee is on “summer break” perhaps) Those who run the office for our “representatives” do deserve a thank you, for the most part they handle a wide variety of problems and enquiries in a professional and friendly manner, it is not I suspect an easy task. Their bosses however are a widely varied lot, some such as our own Bill Murdoch is an easy guy to talk to and will take the time to do so and even (gasp) give you his personal opinion on a particular issue. Others are less forthcoming, less open to public discussion and less available. Guess they need a rest from bad mouthing the “other guys” and being highly partisan when discussing legislation in committee, so expect them home for the summer. If you would all stop fighting and start cooperating and seeking consensus then perhaps, just perhaps, we might get somewhere.

Having watched with dismay the referendum on electoral reform go down the tubes in BC and being very concerned with the increasing arrogance of elected governments who seem to feel that once in power they have the RIGHT to do any thing they like without restrictions, I do hope that those guys will take some time to REALLY connect with the folks at home who are struggling whilst our leaders diddle! I do not mean spout the party line when asked a question and promptly start saying how bad the other guys are, but actually have a conversation with your constituents and listen to what they have to say about the way parliament and our government is reacting to the current “downturn”!

Regular readers will also know that in the last year or so I have been promoting and heavily leaning towards the greens, unfortunately our provincial representative has had a web site melt down of his local blog for some time now. It is starting to come back up, but it not there yet!

It seems to me that the Greens are the ONLY party with a real platform pushing electoral reform and increased democracy in the HoC. However even this up and coming party is not without its problems, some cannot decide if they want to be a political party or a environmental group, they, like all the rest are having internal squabbles as to how to run the organization, how to get more members, how to get more MONEY. It seems that the closer one gets to power the less open and accountable and the more “closed” becomes the party structure. I continue to seek some real solutions to our democratic dilemma but at times I wish I was just the typical uniformed, media spun, unconcerned, non voting “citizen”

The only thing I can say to our representatives, both those elected and those striving to be so, is this, if you cannot be open and accountable to those whom you represent (whether that be due to party pressure, media spin, opposition lies, or political expediency) then I have no time for you whatsoever! As for the rest of you, WAKE UP, its all going down the tubes (as evidenced, in part, by the less than 50% voter turn out in BC) and you haven’t even noticed.