rikster wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 9:29 am
So what would you suggest to better the system?
I'm bothered too that by the time we vote the election is already decided, but given where the majority of the population lives what are you suggesting to change to from the First Past the Post system?
One thought.....
Scrapping the current riding system and switching to representation by popular vote. If the Conservatives get 35% of the popular vote, they get 35% of the seats in the house. Who sits in those seats is then decided by inter party membership voting. This would force the electorate to actually become engaged if they wanted a say in who sits for them beyond just the party brand.
Change whatever laws and processes need changing in order to force MP's to work together. Rather than stall and delay the passing of bills, rather than obfuscate to hide changes to laws in thousand page legal bills, do everything possible to force cooperation and compromise.
Engage the electorate. The technology exists now to actually hold referendums in a very short time, at least do this on major issues. Do we want to give $250 million to a foreign cause? Ask the people, Don't leave it up to the MP's who squabble like primary school children. If the people don't engage, well then that's on them.
While you and I disagree on which current candidate would make a better PM, we are on the same page when it comes to experience and education being important (I just put character above that). Anyone who wants to be a career politician should be able to make a comfortable living, however, the financial reward that comes from hard work and investment in one's own career in the private sector should always outstrip public office's financial prospects. You want to serve? Then you do so with "purer" motivations. MP's who enter office with a net worth of $X must exit office with a net worth where any increases can be justified. You want to serve your country? Ok, we will pay you well to do that, but your financial life will also be heavily scrutinized while in office. If a MP leaves his position and his financial position has changed, if it cannot be shown that the increases were commensurate with increases that could be gleaned by any private citizen who invested wisely, then that MP loses those benefits and rather than outright criminal charges, perhaps said increases go into a slush fund that is used for healthcare overages or military needs, or disaster relief.....
There are many many better options than what we currently have. But they all require more engagement on our end of things. I hate the fact that human history is a revolving door of ever increasing oppression from elites and governments until the populace finally has enough and rises up against them. It's violent, there are casualties on all sides, it is needless and senseless.....but corruption is human nature, and it begets, well it begets what we have.
Whose fault is it that our healthcare system is in crisis? Just the Governments or do we take blame as well? Are you saying you'd prefer to do away with healthcare for all and transition to a private system?
Had a neighbour whose husband was clinically obese and the paramedics were at the house on a regular basis, each time they'd take him away to the hospital where he'd spend a few days before being released...Would see the wife carrying cases of Coke into the house...After one incident she was p*ssed off at the paramedics for some reason and wrote a letter to the editor...of course she failed to mention that they are a habitual drainer of the healthcare system because of their poor choices....
This is where we need to kick the degree holders out of their big chairs and replace 50% of them with people who have been doing the boots on the ground work on the front lines. Decision making based upon theory and statistics, where interpretation of those that has been skewed by the idealism that our Universities are fraught with, fails to actually address real issues and always seeks to excuse individuals from personal responsibility by pandering to the sympathy and pity of the masses.
Healthcare workers need the right to refuse service to people who CLEARLY do not need it.
Healthcare workers need the right to exercise a "cry wolf" policy with patients who repeatedly use the system as an escape clause.
There needs to be a financial penalty for those who use ambulances for a taxi or emerg beds for a place to sleep (etc.), and criminal prosecution for people who repeatedly abuse the system this way.
There needs to be
How much of our taxes go to foreign handouts?
Well I don't know the exact figure, but $20B has been sent to Ukraine since 2022. That didn't come out of the Liberal party's pocket. We just promised $250M to fill the gap USAID left in Bangladesh.....is that coming from Trudeau's private account?
What good paying jobs are leaving because of obtuse green ideas and do you agree or disagree that future good paying jobs will be found in the transition to greener energy? Or maybe you are still p*ssed that we switched from the horse and buggy to the model T?
Sorry, I wasn't fully clear. Energy sector jobs, mining jobs, logging jobs, basically the entire resource sector, the types of job that build a strong middle class by employing trades people, labourers, equipment operators, as well as your jobs for those with "higher" education.....how many of those either ceased or didn't happen at all because of government regulation and carbon mandates?
Agree, immigration needs an overhaul, I'm not bothered with how anyone lives their lives, heck I read how many posters here live their lives and think what a drain on our healthcare system they are or will soon become...
But when I hear a story about a doctor from India practising in Florida because her first choice to immigrate to, Canada, has a time consuming process so she chose to go to the US where it was much faster, that has to change...
Immigration is a balancing act that the Liberal Government let get away on them... transitioning away from immigration to a robotic workforce is something that many working Canadians should fear and for the Government robotics don't pay taxes and with an aging population who aren't in the same tax bracket and have reduced consumption, this is a topic that needs to move on from far right talking points...
Please explain your meaning for the bolded comment.
My take on immigration is that if you want to come here, whether it be seeking citizenship or as a refugee, you need to become a productive member of our society and you need to become Canadian. That means recognizing and supporting Canadian values.....this is especially true for refugee status. You are fleeing somewhere, don't come here and try to make here into what you just ran away from.
My biggest problem with our system here is that when we allow these people in and promise them freedom of religion, we don't draw the line hard enough at how that religion is permitted to interact under our laws. There should be no grey area when it comes to this. Shariah law? Jihad? (just two examples) You practice that and you're gone. No appeals. No delays. Immediate incarceration and rapid deportation. You want to come here and beat your wife or children into submission because that is what your god(s) demand? You're gone. No second chances.
You want to work here in any form of job that requires you to communicate clearly? You need to demonstrate sufficient mastery of English (or French if in QC or NB).
My pet peeve...
When politicians rant about the affordability crisis I see two different camps...
The camp who have lived their lives in a fiscally responsible manner and just can't keep up with the cost of living increases...
The other camp who are in financial crisis because of poor choices they have made...
Or when I drive by a food bank and see nearly new vehicles parked on the street while its owners are in the line for free food...
That's a reasonable pet peeve. However, I land this at the feet of society as much as the individual. Society tolerated that to the point that it became the norm. Consumer society driven by in your face marketing where luxuries are pedalled as needs. Forced obsolescence by manufacturers. I grew up on the tail end of the generation where parents actually didn't get everything for their kids if affordability was an issue.....and I still had way more than some of my older cousins, and certainly more than my parents.
The food bank part.....those people should be charged with theft.