Pubic Interest Alberta is at it again. They have done some very interesting work on education and the challenges of low income levels that many have to cope with in Alberta.
Now they are digging into the democratic deficit issues in the province. I urge you to check out their site especially the topic of “Democratic Renewal.” They are holding pubic meetings on the concerns over how well our democracy is functioning in Alberta. It will be worth your time to take an evening and engage with some fellow citizens on the health of our democracy.
We have to do something to overcome the serious cynicism of the citizenry (and to annihilate abstract alliteration ;-). PIA is a group of interested citizens who are volunteering time and talent to create a place and space for this important conversation to happen. I urge you to take advantage of the opportunity.
I will be video taping an interview with University of Alberta Political Scientist, Dr. Steve Patten and former Alberta Teachers Association President, Larry Booi about this initiative this coming week. The videos will be posted on Policy Channel later next week at http://www.policychannel.com/.
The Public Interest Alberta site was interesting - thank you for the link to that - and their PDF on "Democratic Renewal" was...interesting.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your videotaped interviews!
I suspect that the primary concerns that I and some others hold, about problems with democratic process in Alberta, will not come up (at least not in a direct way) - much as they were not directly addressed in the PIA pdf. So, here they are:
- organizations of any kind, which receive funding from a government, should be barred from lobbying members of that government to
retain, oppose, or change the law, policy, or decision of any level of government in Canada or a foreign country. Or, if government-funded organizations are permitted to lobby governments for such purposes, an equivalent sum to the organization's funding should be made available for any other group of persons who wish to lobby members of the government on the same topic.
- if government ministries, departments or agencies use public monies to engage in Social Marketing campaigns intended to "influence the attitudes and behaviour" of the public, equivalent sums should be made available to be divided among any non-governmental groups that wish to address the public on the same topic.
- no level of government should be permitted to use taxation-derived monies for the purpose of inflicting hardship on the members of any law-abiding social minority - regardless of the rationalizations or justifications for doing so.
- whenever a piece of legislation, regulation or policy comes up for vote by elected reps, every representative should be required to publicly acknowledge, in some set manner, having received either support for or protests against the legislation from their constituents (if they indeed received any)- contrasting the vote of that representative. In other words, if the rep will vote "yes" they must acknowledge receiving "noes" from constituents or vice-versa.
PIA does not receive government money so far as I know. I will check.
ReplyDelete