Avalon

Should Canada be involved militarily in Afghanistan? Should we commit more resources, scale back or leave altogether? This is a question that rears its head from time to time in the media. Canada has been in Afghanistan a long time, one thing is certain the death toll is constantly rising. Our political leaders, our military and us, the public, are in a bind with Afghanistan and it is our political system that put us there.

There are very good reasons for these types of military missions whether they are NATO obligations or UN peacekeeping. But due to the nature of our political decision-making questions regarding these missions, such as ‘should we be involved?’ or ‘should we ramp up or scale back?’ are made without seeking any type of public consensus. A few people at the political centre make the decision and parliament goes along with it without real debate. Our leaders and representatives do not seek our opinion. And since there is no public consensus on these missions the government must sometimes act in disgraceful ways to keep them out of the public eye in case the public develops its own ideas. This is what happened in our last major mission in Serbia. Operation Medak Pocket, the biggest battle Canada has been involved in since 1953, was covered up for two years. The Department of Defense altered casualty reports to downplay the lethality of the mission. Inadequate equipment endangering lives was spun away in the media. Returning soldiers were given no national recognition and were quickly swept under the rug. Where were the ticker tape parades?

By discouraging public debate our system makes victims of us all, our leaders, the public and most of all the soldiers, both living and dead, and their families who must carry the burden. Something must be done!

New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald have recently signed an agreement to eliminate a trade barrier between the two provinces. The Atlantica Party supports the idea of a regional free trade zone encompassing all four Atlantic provinces as part of its plan to form a single economically prosperous Atlantic Canadian province and this agreement is a small step in that direction.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have reached an agreement to eliminate the dual weighing of trucks when passing over the border between the two provinces. The agreement will mean truckers will no longer have to check in at the weigh station in Amherst, N.S., and the weight station in Salisbury, N.B., which are less than an hour apart. The two premiers are calling this historic agreement a “Partnership Agreement on Regulation and the Economy.” This agreement has come out of a process of talking that has been going for decades about eliminating many barriers to trade amongst the two provinces.

The Atlantica Party anticipates the mainstream parties in the next few decades perhaps creating several more agreements in one or two other of the 40 vital areas where trade barriers exist amongst the four provinces.

This month the Atlantic Lottery Corporation is planning to introduce an electronic keno game in PEI and Nova Scotia. Anti-gambling advocates and problem-gambling counselors have expressed their opposition given keno’s high risk reputation. They accuse the corporation of deceptively ‘sliding’ keno in, and ignoring the demands of the public and stakeholders.

Government run gambling is a public issue. It can cause distress and in some cases suicide among those who are prone to gambling addiction. On the other hand gambling does provide funds to the government and it undercuts the potential for criminal behavior surrounding non-government sponsored gambling. So the issue is not clear-cut and fragmentary sound-bite-debates between a reticent government corporation and outspoken interest groups each claiming ‘the public interest’ in the media is not the way forward to a reasoned solution. So how should we proceed on the issue of keno?

Allow the legislature to deal with it of course. It is the job of our representatives to investigate and debate proposals from the government, in this case from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. Let our representatives interview all sides, consult their constituents, consider the data and then have an open and free debate followed by a free vote on keno. However it appears that the last time keno was discussed by any part of the legislature was in 2005.

So where is our legislature?