Thursday, May 12, 2005

Be Still My Heart

Today's headline from Canada's cnews: "Tories, Bloc shut down Parliament," made my heart skip a joyful beat, but only for a brief moment until I realized that the measure was very, very temporary. Wouldn't it be nice if the Canadian Parliament were to stay shut? No-one would then be there to pass more ill-conceived laws. No-one to complicate our lives unnecessarily and then charge us for the privilege via ever more taxes.

The Liberal government led by Paul Martin needs to be voted out of office. Corrupt, inefficient and smug, might be words to describe the party that has been in power since 1993. The only problem is that there is never a guarantee that a new bunch of elected bozos is going to be any better than the bunch they replace. As long as members of parliament have the power to pass legislation, no one is safe.

I have no doubt that the Conservative leader Stephen Harper would make a better Prime Minister than the Liberal Paul Martin. Harper is bright and appears to be an honourable person. It's just that if you spend time in a cesspool, you are likely to get covered in excrement. I like Harper, but can't see how he or anyone else can make any real difference at the federal government level in Canada.

I think the following should happen:
  • There should be a 'None of The Above' choice on every ballot. Let's get rid of our legislators one by one. Let them keep their pensions if they just go away and leave us alone. It would be a small price to pay to get rid of them all.
  • Every federal law should have a sunset clause which would guarantee expiry after some reasonable term, say five years. That way, any law which demonstrably doesn't work, would simply disappear. Otherwise, laws and the bureaucracies established to enforce them, live on in perpetuity, no matter how ridiculous and ineffective they are.
Just dreaming, folks. It'll never happen. We are stuck with the system we have until it collapses of its own weight. Why? Because there are enough voters who think that individual humans can't function without a federal nanny government telling them what to do, what not to do and when.

That's the unfortunate reality.

4 comments:

  1. what annoys me is that the politicians who are shutting down Parliament are still getting paid as if they were actually working instead of loafing around enjoying a self-imposed work stoppage.

    I'd much rather see the opposition force the Liberals to address some outstanding legislation that benefits everyone instead of pissing around playing games like this at our expense.

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  2. Sure. We pay their salary so we expect them to work. Right? Problem is, sometimes it would better to pay them as watchdogs, to preserve what is good about our country rather than have them pass ever more legislation which just screws things up even more.

    Ooops. Did I just use the word 'conserve?' No, I'm not a conservative. I'm a libertarian and we already have too damn many laws, IMHO.

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  3. that's why I said "address legislation" and not "make legislation"

    ;)

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  4. Good point, Christopher. Addressing legislation could include throwing it out.

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