Avalon

A response to Mr. Stephen Mahler’s article in the Chronicle Herald of Wednesday April 28th entitled ‘The throbbing heart of democracy beats loudly’.

Mr. Mahler does a good job summarizing the lead up to a pivotal moment in our history; the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the creation of the Bill of Rights in 1689. After many hundreds of years of struggle and many deaths the peoples’ representatives in the legislature became effectively independent from the control of the executive (in this case William III). It was a huge step forward on the road to democracy. However somewhere along that road we have taken a wrong turn.

Fast forward to Nova Scotia 2010 with its inherited and outdated Westminster system, add a broken electoral system and large dose of party discipline and we are back to pre-1688. Why? Because we have a new monarch, a Premier not directly elected, who has de-facto control over our legislature through party discipline. True the Premier cannot drag The Honourable Charlie Parker out of the legislature and have him executed, but at a word he can terminate any initiative not to his liking (fixed election dates, ending anonymous voting, public inquiry into political expenses). His will cannot be opposed by our legislature even when there is no general public support on an issue, witness the current budget process. Are we really that far from the days of absolute monarchy?

So we Nova Scotians have to set ourselves the task, in the spirit of 1688, of continuing the fight of our ancestors in achieving the separation of powers needed to make the ‘throbbing heart of democracy’ beat loudly for all to hear!

And by the way good for Speaker Lenthall and Speaker Milliken!

In British Columbia citizens can initiate a recall of their MLA. Volunteer canvassers have sixty days in which to collect signatures from 40% of the electors in the riding. If successful, a bye-election is triggered with the sitting MLA allowed to run again for the seat. The Atlantica Party wishes to bring recall here to Nova Scotia. So it is interesting to speculate on outcomes if we had had recall here in the last few months. Would only two by-elections be in the offing as a result of the expense scandal? Would Mr. Zinck still be sitting in the legislature come next election?
Recall is a wonderful and democratic tool. The representative works for the constituents so it is reasonable and fair that they may attempt to fire their representative. Note that the thresholds used in British Columbia are quite high, 40% in sixty days. Anyone who has canvassed door to door knows this is quite difficult to achieve. But this is a good thing since it stops recall from being used as a partisan weapon and reserves it for extreme cases. In BC there have been twenty recall attempts but only one that resulted in change. It empowers the electorate since they do not have to wait around for the party in question to take action, this keeps the party on its toes. And it solves conundrums like the situation of Mr. Zinck who can serve at his own pleasure until the next election perhaps contrary to the wishes of his constituents.

Yesterday’s budget is a continuation of big spending and big government, a habit that Nova Scotia needs break if it is to have prosperity.

Nova Scotia’s newest budget is no different than the last dozen. Since 1998 government spending has more than doubled but population growth has been flat. Without the straight to debt university pre-pay, spending is up 3.9%, down a little from the typical 5% a year seen over the last decade. Every government department but two will spend more this year.

“Let’s be clear, there is no restraint here. This is a tax and spend budget and it makes Nova Scotians poorer. “, said Jonathan Dean, Leader of the Atlantica Party. ” The current mindset is that restraint is defined as slower spending growth, but things cannot continue on this way. We need a change in the way we view government as a whole. Government has to become more limited. “