One of the objectives of the current special parliamentary committee on electoral reform in Canada is to look at ways of encouraging more people to vote. To-date they have considered suggestions of everything from paying people to vote to making it law. Some American companies considering the importance of the upcoming federal election in the United States are even giving their employees the day off to vote.
But what everyone is doing is looking at the question of how to increase voting turnout through the wrong end of the telescope. The problem is with the politicians. They are lazy, inexpert and making the wrong assumptions before any election even gets off the ground.
If companies really wanted to help turn out the vote, they would give employees wanting to help their political parties the day off to work for their party to get out the vote. It is of no concern of the company which party but having employees who care makes it all worthwhile.
Political parties throughout North America have been on a steady downward spiral for the past quarter century. From the time that Jean Chrétien trashed his Red Book of promises in taking power in 1993, the Liberal Party of Canada headed downhill. In the same way, the Conservative Party of Canada became Stephen Harper’s personal instrument and forgot about the future.
And if no American politico is not now aware of the desperate need for America to reform its political primary system, they have been in a coma for the past year.
Political parties in North America have been taking a bad rap for the past 150 years. They are the unappreciated engine of the political process of the country. As corrupt as they might have been in the past, they work hard to reflect current morals. They are the public—some living in the past, some looking to the future. They generate politicians, good and bad, they deal in process and political possibilities.
We cannot have organized, national politicians without their handmaidens in the political parties. We need the workers, the strategists, the sign holders, the leaders, the door knockers and the challengers. Political parties must be allowed to grow and replenish.
Yet we encourage the destroyers. Harper is gone but Trudeau has taken the Liberal Party, shaken it like a rag doll and let the insiders fall out. Trump has driven a disillusioned Republican Party to perdition. It will take years to rebuild. Maybe it will be better for it. All political parties need to rebuild themselves. They do not belong to the politicians. They belong to their nation.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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