CANADA HAS A DEMOCRACY PROBLEM... and it's getting worse
Oct. 20, 2025: Democracy is very important.
In fact, democracy is so important that 'our leaders' in Canada never talk about it. Because they don't want Canadians thinking about or talking about ... Democracy. Our Media never talk about democracy, except to tell us what a 'great' democracy we are. And the same with our Politicians.
And democracy just means that we ... the people who Live Here ... have a voice in what our governments are doing. But in Canada today, that is largely gone. We ... we the people ... have become largely irrelevant. And if you take a look around you, at the homelessness and the housing crisis and the health care mess and the fact that half of us will get cancer because the corporations are allowed to poison us in order to maximize their profits ... THAT is a part of the cost we pay for having lost our democracy and having lost our voices while the corporations and the super-rich have all the power - and own all the big media - and control our top politicians and our governments.
The fact is that our democracy in Canada is very weak. And that's a big part of the reason why our country has all the problems we have. If we want to fix things up - here are three things we can do.
WE NEED A NEW VOTING SYSTEM:
One reason for our failing democracy is that we have a voting system that is 'Not Democracy Friendly'. Believe it or not, Voting Systems Are Important. I won't go into the details, but a Proportional Voting System, of the type they have in most of Europe, is more democratic than the voting system we use in Canada. A proportional voting system does give the voters (which is us) a little more power, and it takes a bit of the power away from Big Business and the 1%.
And that's why we can't have a proportional voting system in Canada.
Because those at the top, the corporations and the 1%, who now have ALL the power, do not intend to give any of it up. They like our current voting system, called First Past The Post, because with that system it is easier for them to control our political parties and our elections and our governments. If we had a proportional voting system, their control would be weakened. They would still have a lot of power, but a bit less than they have now. We had a 'referendum' here in BC on getting a PR voting system a few years ago. One day I turned on CKNW which is the #1 news/talk radio station in Vancouver; owned by Shaw. Within 30 seconds the host was talking about 'Nazis in our Legislature' if we had a PR voting system. That's what the corporate media tell people about PR, because the corporations that own the media do not want a proportional voting system.
Proportional Voting is part of the reason why Europe, which largely uses proportional voting systems, has had better worker protections, better health care, stronger environmental rules, and etc. than we do here in North America for the past 30 years or so. But Europe is also under attack these days, and their democracy too is in danger from those at the top who always want 'more' of the money and the wealth and the power
It is said that 'the price of democracy is eternal vigilance' and that is true. We in Canada have been asleep on this issue for a long time, and we have largely lost our democracy because of that. And we are paying a heavy price for that loss.
Secondly, Democracy Requires A Free Press: But here in Canada all our big media are 'corporate owned'. A functioning Democracy does require a free press, because it is important for citizens to have a realistic picture of what is going on. Only then, with honest information and access to real facts, can we citizens make intelligent decisions in our own best interests. The corporations know this very well, which is why they bought up all the big media in Canada. They own the media, they control every word that gets into their media, and they use it as a propaganda machine to maintain their control of our country. While we think we have a great 'Free Press' in Canada that is out there working for us.
It is a dangerous situation for us Canadians when one small group, Big Business, owns and controls virtually all of the nation's big media - including, sadly, the CBC. And even worse than Big Business owning and controlling the media is the fact that a large majority of Canadians trust and believe the media - as I did for most of my life, but I no longer do. Think of what that means ... when Big Business owns the big media, and all the journalists work for 'them', and yet we trust and believe those journalists and think we have A Free Press that is working for us.
That's why the corporations and the super-rich have more and more of the money and wealth - while millions of Canadians can barely afford to pay for a place to live and food. We think the people in the media work for us, because that's what they always tell us. They actually work for - and are paid by - the corporations, but they tell us they work for us. And we believe them. Just think of how they must laugh at us.
And thirdly, our major political parties are increasingly undemocratic and corrupt... It used to be that The Members of a political party had a fair bit of control over who the candidate from their area would be. So the members of a Political Party - in any 'riding' - were able to choose who their candidate would be. And then the candidate, if elected, had some responsibility to actually do what the party members wanted. And if they didn't they knew they would be replaced by the members in the next election. That is how things should work in a 'representative government'. We elect people who represent us - and we, the voters and citizens, have some control over them. But all of that is long gone.
Today,the Party Leadership Gangs have complete control over the people we elect; while the voters and party members have virtually NO control over them. And that is extremely undemocratic. It means that it is now impossible for the people we elect to represent US - even if they wanted to. Because the party leadership has complete control of their career. If someone we elect wants to be a candidate in the next election, or even remain in the party, they MUST do what the party leadership tells them to do. If they do what the public wants, and if that conflicts with what the leadership wants, that politician will be removed by the leadership and there is nothing the party members can do about it.
And nowadays, that reality is made very clear to anyone who wants to be a candidate for a major party. You are told beforehand that you will be expected to do what you are told to do. And if you aren't willing to agree to that, then you will not be allowed to be a candidate for the party. This is completely undemocratic. We citizens have got to get control of our elected representatives back into OUR hands. Did any of us vote for the housing mess we have or the health care mess we have? Did we vote to have GMO foods everywhere in our food supply? No, we never voted for these things, but our governments did these things to us because they no longer work for us or even care about us for one second. Everything they tell us is a lie, because they won't tell us the most basic truth which is that they don't work for us; they are controlled by the party and that is that. Period.
In my opinion, it is this growing lack of democracy in Canada that is the root cause of a lot of our problems ... including inflation, the cost of living, the housing mess, the health care crisis, and on and on. The problem is that our governments, with all of their power, are GONE from us. Our governments now work for Big Business and Corporate Canada and the Super-Rich... and all of those groups have been doing very well while millions of Canadians are increasingly in debt and often sick, and fighting to just live a reasonable life while our society seems to be falling apart in many ways.
More democracy is the way forward. Meaning that we ... We The People ... begin to have a voice i what is going on in Canada. Until we have that, things will only continue to get worse. And nobody is going to give us any democracy. If we want it, we are going to have to fight our .01% ruling class. And so far, we don't even know what the problem is, so we are a very long way from solving it...
