Dream On Link

An excellent example of satire Link but you know as well as I that people don't want solutions they just want the right to bitch and complain about those things that impact on them and when they do take up the holy grail their passion can be measured by how far they are from the problem.

People's parliament
By LINK BYFIELD

The word "parliament" comes from the French word for speaking. Yet it's amazing how many things you won't hear spoken in the Parliament of Canada.

In certain sensitive respects, Parliament is a huge conspiracy of silence. You'll never hear, for instance, that if Parliament had actually invested all the money it has poured into the Atlantic economy, that investment fund today would contain $2.3 trillion, enough to pay off the national debt four times over.

You'll never hear it said in Parliament the average Alberta family pays an astonishing $15,000 a year extra to the federal government, just to subsidize programs such as equalization in places that don't need them, like Quebec.

You don't hear in Parliament any complaints about East Coast fish plants in areas of 15% unemployment flying in workers from Russia.

Neither do you hear Maritimers now spend more on hospitals and universities than Ontarians, who (along with Albertans) provide the federal subsidies.

You'll never hear it asked why the tiny nation of Iceland, with no natural resources, is one of the most productive economies in the world, while Newfoundland, with vast resources and a larger population, is one of the least. You won't hear Canadian taxes are one-third above America's, and our standard of living one-third below, or we have been surpassed in productivity by about 15 nations.

These facts have been known to economists for years. But they aren't known to Canadian voters, because after half a century of systemic electoral bribery, no party dares to mention them.

What we need, I think, is a second parliament, one that consists of ordinary citizens instead of political parties. At least several hundred citizens, maybe a thousand.

They should be chosen by lot, like a jury, rather than by election. And they should be asked to resolve a simple but terribly important question: "Should some regions of Canada subsidize other regions? If so, why and how much?"

Discussion and debate should be structured, balanced, informed and courteous, but it must be frank. It has to get beyond the feel-good "sharing-and-caring" slogans of politics and answer whether these social "investments" do any measurable good.

Maritimers may be understandably defensive in this parliament, Quebecers aggressive, Albertans impatient and Ontarians alarmed. This is Canada, after all. But somehow we must answer the question: "If rich areas owe something to poor areas, what do poor regions owe rich ones?" If we can't answer that sensible question, why are we federated?

Most important of all, this "people's parliament" must not be paid for by governments. If politicians pay for it they will run it, and if they run it, they will wreck it.

There is a way to do this -- via the Internet. The technology is there for this assembly to meet without anyone leaving home. Would news media and politicians pay attention? You bet. And maybe, just maybe, the real Parliament of Canada would then find the courage to start talking honestly about how to run the country properly.

Our group, the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, is working with others to set this up. If you'd like to be involved, visit (GotCHA)