What democracy???

Article originally Published in November 2015 edition of "Your Ward News"

What democracy???

   Many people hold the false belief that here in Canada we are living in a democracy. That has not been true for some time now, Yes we have elections that give the illusion of a democratic system but the choices we are given and the system that controls those choices are in no way, shape or form democratic.

   Since the Liberal government of 74 when Canada turned over the control of our financial system to the private banking cartels we have been in fact living in a fascist corporatocracy. This is not my opinion. This concept has been clearly defined by economists and political scientists. So let’s be honest when we throw around words like democracy because that's not what we have here in Canada.

   Our government in Canada consists of a closed group of people who drift in and out of public service and are otherwise employed as corporate or academic elite when not in or voted out of public service.

   The three large political parties in Canada are funded by these same banking interests, corporations and unions. These are the same groups that employ the people who run for office. This is not some conspiracy theory or secret. For example almost every Prime Minister, premier and many of the key Cabinet Minsters we have had over the last 50 years all were employed or had direct connections to the Desmarais family and their large family firm Power Corp.  Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque were both members of the Communist party before they started working for Power Corp., Paul Martin got his shipping company off Power Corp., Jean Chrétien’s daughter married right into the Desmarais family and Brian Mulroney upon leaving office moved right into the board of directors for Power Corp.

    Not only are the players selected and groomed for public office but the way the three main political parties are funded is murky at best and downright criminal in practice. One need look no further than the current scandal’s in Ottawa involving Senator Mike Duffy or the NDP giving tax funded office space to union fund raisers’ to realize the big three’s funding practices flaunt the laws in place and yet no one is ever charged or arrested? The parties are given a pass while individual’s get hand slaps. There’s been more than one story about corporate board members walking though the office distributing cheques to employees with the understanding that they were meant for tax deductible donations for specific campaign’s or parties. From what I’ve been led to believe this has become standard practice now.

   Part of this control of our political system is the influence of the corporate media over our electoral system. The founding fathers of confederation realized the influence that media had over the electoral process. Even though at the time media only consisted of newspapers. Still laws were put into place to strictly control media ownership. Over the years with the event of radio and television these media ownership laws were expanded to include these new forms of communication. The idea behind these media ownership laws were to ensure that control of the media rested in the hands of as many people as possible. Starting in the 80’s under Mulroney these media ownership laws were whittled down, and changed depending on which corporate conglomerate was making moves on what sector.

 Between 1990 and 2005 there were a number of media corporate mergers and takeovers in Canada. For example, in 1990, 17.3% of daily newspapers were independently owned; whereas in 2005, 1% were. These changes, among others, caused the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to launch a study of Canadian news media in March 2003. (This topic had been examined twice in the past, by the Davey Commission (1970) and the Kent Commission (1981), both of which produced recommendations that were never implemented in any meaningful way.

   The point being with a controlled news media the public is very seldom informed of the smaller (Fringe) parties and independent candidates, even when they do clear the hurdles and independently come up with the financing required to even get on the ballot.

     And of course the big lie that is whispered at election time that if you do vote for a fringe party or independent you are “Wasting your vote”.

    It also goes without saying that this control also dictates subject, policy and issues discussed during elections so that subjects important to most Canadians such as banking policy, immigration or foreign aid are never discussed or brought to light in the body politic.

   And of course there is the one thing that is talked about which is the  "First past the post" system.  In each electoral district or riding, the candidate with the most number of votes in an election wins a seat in the House of Commons, or the legislative assembly in provincial and territorial elections. The leader of the party which wins the highest number or seats, rather than the party with the highest percentage of the overall vote is asked to form the government. Although first past the post is talked about, the winners of the elections seem to forget all about their objections to this system when they win.

   With the system and media rigged to ensure that only the big three corporate controlled parties will ever attain and forever hold on to power in Canadian politics it’s no wonder at all that the public has become jaded to the system and for the most part given up on voting and participating in the political system. Voter turnout in Canada now averages around 60% and has been dropping steadily. The last federal by-election I worked on it was 47% that means less than half the people who could vote did !

    If Canada is ever to regain a democratic form of government a number of things need to happen. First Canada needs to return the issuance of currency to the public (The Bank of Canada, which we own) and away from the private banking cartels. Who use this wealth to control the people and the government though debt. Second a large percentage of Canadian citizens have to care enough to get involved in the political process. Not only in terms of voting but also in joining and running of political parties. We need to demand honesty and transparency in government and get it! Not just promises. Lastly we need to install a system of accountability.

    Regaining democracy in Canada is a huge undertaking. It requires a lot of work by a lot of people. Until you are ready to do your part don’t speak to me of democracy in Canada because that’s not what we have.

  

Lawrence McCurry

June 2015

Article originally Published in November 2015 edition of "Your Ward News"