Dave Dowling

April 23, 2012 Alberta election ;none of the political parties have democracy in platform, even though one party has similar word in thier name!

“The reason we do not have democracy is because it takes power out of the hands of the few and puts it back into the hands of all the people where it truly belongs” on Democracy by David Dowling

I use Canada as an example in this for I live in Canada. Democracy can be in any country, all it takes is the people, the majority, the nation rising up for it. History shows this to be so. Democracy is where everyone votes on all legislation. Federal, Provincial and municipal legislation is voted upon by everyone in that region where the legislation is brought forth for a vote. If a bylaw in city was brought forth for a vote by the representatives, the citizens of that city would vote on the legislation. If the province wanted to enact new legislation the people of the city in that province and everyone else in the province would vote on that legislation the province wanted to enact.  If the Federal government wanted to enact legislation then everyone in the country would vote on it. This is what Democracy is and would be in Canada if Canada had Democracy. Instead what Canada has is a 500 year old system of government that can now only be described as representative fascism.

Representative fascism is where representatives are elected in a fascist election system where how much you have, what you own and who you know determines the outcome of the election for representatives. The poor do not have money to contribute to campaigns. Corporate owners do. Fascism is where corporations and the rich have the ear of government and you do not. Representative fascism is where representatives are elected every ¼ generation or so, and those representatives constantly enact legislation that favors the large corporation. A Prime example is Alberta. In Alberta Corporations are allowed to rape the land for oil at the tar sands. They do so by having a royalty rate of one poorcent of the net revenue guaranteed for25 years from when their tar sands processing plant starts producing sellable product. That time frame is delayed every time they upgrade their tar sands processing plant. By constantly “upgrading” every 20 or so years, the oil companies can continue their one poorcent of the net revenue royalty rates forever. This results in the oil companies getting hundreds of billions of dollars of profits every year, while the provincial government runs a deficit every year. This “deficit” enables the government to continuously tax the people while it gives the oil away to the corporations for less than nothing. The country Venezuela has 20 % royalty rates on its harder to extract bitumen. Representative Fascism is what Canada has. Canada is no where near being a Democracy where all the people vote on everything.  In a Democracy, Alberta would probably have oil royalty rates higher than what Venezuela has. For Democracies tend to favor the majority of the people, not just the vested interests of a few money nobles.

Democracy is a grand and noble concept. Democracy is good and great and excellent. Democracy is what Canada can have. Democracy is implementable and affordable. Democracy is superior to ballot referendums. Democracy restores integrity to government, brings back openness in government and Democracy is the most cost effective form of government there is. Canada could very easily implement a Democratic system of government that would benefit the entire Nation!

Here is how to do it, and it is far cheaper than giving banks hundreds of billions of tax payer money.
1 Nationalize the two largest cell phone networks, combine them into one, the government cellphone system.
2 Nationalize a cell phone maker in Canada… like R.I.M. makers of blackberry’s everywhere.
3 Give every voter in Canada a free cellphone with unlimited everything.
4 Have it so all voting is done over the government phone system where everything is verified by a secure system that has verification by: microchip serial numbered in the phone, person has to type in a password and there could even be facial recognition by the built in camera in the phone.
5 Have specific hack free servers used only for voting.
6 Implement the laws governing how the Democratic system works.
1 to 5 are easy to do. And can be done so on a safe secure system once it is there.

The laws governing it are the harder part, for they would in effect supersede the laws that now govern the process.  Before anything was put to a vote, it would first have to pass a charter or rights and freedoms challenge to make sure it is a valid law, a just law, a law that helps all the people. This must be done to ensure that “mob mentality” does not rue the day and make demagogueries of a Nation.  Just as is done, there would be have to be time for vigorous debate so the nation could question and the people look within themselves to make sure they make their choice when voting upon legislation of a federal nature.  
With less than 50% of the people voting in some areas, a law giving people money for voting would be an excellent way to encourage people to vote. It should be graded on a persons percentage of voting. Example if that person was asked to vote 100 times in one year, then they would get $100 if they voted 100% of the time they were asked to vote. If they only voted 90% of the time they were asked to vote, then they would only get $90. A voting rebated tied to the percentage of times you voted when asked to. This system would be far better than fining people for not voting. It is far better to reward people than to punish them as a fine would do. There would be times when people would be wanting to not vote, and hence there must be that choice of abstaining on the ballot. It is a must that the choice of abstaining be on the ballot, for this is the only way to respect those who can not vote for the issue or person(s).

Which is why legislation , some of it would depend on the percentage of voters voting on it. A Nation may want it so some legislation takes a 90% + vote to pass. Other legislation may require only a 66 and 2/3%+to pass, or 50% or even 25%. Of course this would make it harder for government to do certain things, for they would have to have the majority of voters agreeing with them. Also, there would be legislation that would be easy to implement, for the majority of the nation would agree with it!

Democracy is needed. But it has to be a balanced democracy that not only respects the people, but the environment where the people live must also be respected by a Democracy, or that democracy is doomed to fail as the countless lessons of history show us.

When countries can give billions upon billions to banks and spend trillions upon trillions bombing some foreign nation over 1000 miles away into the stone age, the argument that a technological based system to usher in a democratic system of government is too expensive for the taxed voter is far worse than anything any terrorist could ever do.

When its been shown that Democracy would restore integrity to government, bring in the openness that people are wanting and give back control of government to the majority of the people that have less and less of it, the only argument against democracy is the opinionated circular rhetoric of the totalitarian dictatorship out to tax you as much as possible for them. Them been the few that want to rule  the majority instead of serving the majority as the elected are elected to do. We had 2 world wars to rid us of the tyranny of the few. Democracy solves this forevermore without the need of war.