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| Brexit referendum let United Kingdom voters decided on European Union membership |
Canada's elites don't like giving people a vote on key issues - they would rather decide for you - because they think you are not smart enough
July 5, 2016
By Bill Tieleman
"We
decide not to have referendums for a good reason -- these are bloody
complicated issues... It's anti-democratic."
- Mel Cappe,
former Canadian deputy minister, on the Brexit vote
You heard
that correctly -- giving Canadians a referendum vote on important issues is
"anti-democratic," because our elites think you're too stupid to make
the right decision.
Those
Canadian elites don't want you to ever make decisions through direct democracy
-- instead they demand that only politicians get to vote. And that, of course,
means the party with a Parliamentary majority actually decides.
Unfortunately,
the elites have become even further entrenched in that "we know better
than you" attitude with the recent narrow decision by United Kingdom
voters to leave the European Union in the tumultuous Brexit situation.
And there is
an obvious Canadian example where both the federal Liberal government and most
of the country's elites are in lockstep -- denying voters a referendum to
decide on which electoral system we will use to choose our governments.
As
Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef disingenuously put it:
"To reduce this national conversation to a simple 'Yes' or 'No' is taking
a short cut and doing a great disservice to Canadians and to this incredible
opportunity we have here to engage Canadians."
In other
words, engage but without giving Canadians a vote. That attitude is
condescending, insulting and outrageous.
And 73 per
cent of Canadians in a recent poll
disagreed with Monsef, saying a referendum is needed.
They
understand that the most fundamental, unequivocal heart of a democracy is that
the voters have the right to be in charge -- not the politicians they elect to
run government on their behalf.
And on major
issues like changing the electoral system or the constitution, the people must
decide through a fair democratic vote.
The Brexit
vote results may be terrible or tremendous, depending on your point of view,
but it is undeniably democratic -- and must be respected as such.
With a 72
per cent turnout -- far higher than recent Canadian elections -- and 33.5
million voting, you would think no one could deny the legitimacy of the
exercise.
But never
underestimate the arrogance of the elites.
A great
BC initiative
Fortunately,
in British Columbia, ordinary citizens can petition to demand a vote on any
issue.
And though
our Initiative legislation is woefully weak because it doesn't create a binding
vote and is extremely difficult to trigger -- requiring the valid signatures of
10 per cent of voters in every one of B.C.'s 85 ridings be collected within 90
days -- it does exist.
And in 2010,
Fight HST -- where I was strategist
under leader Bill Vander Zalm, the former B.C. premier -- surprised by doing
just that for the first time ever.
That Citizens
Initiative collected over 557,000 valid signatures, forced a vote on
the harmonized sales tax that was later made binding, and finally British
Columbians voted in 2011 to extinguish the HST.
B.C. also
held two democratic referenda on the proposed Single Transferable Vote
electoral system, in 2005 and 2009, rejecting it both times.
But the
elites don't like referenda -- and they make it very clear.
Mel Cappe is
not only a former federal clerk
to the Privy Council, Head of the Public Service and federal deputy minister in
several ministries -- he also served as Canada's High Commissioner to the U.K.
for four years. He is now a professor of public policy at the University of
Toronto.
In other
words, Cappe is, well -- even in the words of CBC TV's The National host
Peter Mansbridge -- "elite."
And Cappe
doesn't mince words about how you don't want a vote on critical issues.
"Because
we have representative democracy for a reason... We don't want and the public
doesn't want to actually take responsibility -- as we're seeing the remorse
after the vote... they want their representatives to deal with the complexity
of this," Cappe said.
"There's
a special place in hell for leaders who put the existential future of their
country at risk," he added, referring to former British Prime Minister
David Cameron, who had the nerve to promise a referendum on EU membership and
kept that pledge.
But Cappe is
hardly alone. On the same edition
of The National were not one but four holders of the Order of Canada,
the distinctive pin signifying it clearly visible on each lapel.
In addition
to Cappe, Mansbridge and panel guests Janice Stein
and Samantha Nutt
also are members of the Order of Canada. And -- surprise -- they don't disagree
with Cappe at all.
"I
think Mel's right, Peter -- because one of the differences between a Parliament
and referendums is that Parliament protects minorities, referendums
don't," Stein said.
"But
this sounds, elitist, if you don't mind," said Mansbridge with a wry
smile, perhaps sensing that maybe viewers were not convinced. But Stein
certainly was.
"That's
why we have protections for minorities and referendums don't do that. They
actually divide, they take complex problems and they say yes or no. They play
passions. They're a very dangerous tool. I'm glad we don't do more of
them," Stein replied.
Nutt also
denounced the Brexit vote.
"It's
the kind of populism and demagoguery that over time has had disastrous for
civilians around the world," Nutt said.
Actually,
what's disastrous for people all around the world is not democratic referenda
on important issues -- it's the appalling lack of democracy in countries run by
dictatorships, backed by the military, who suppress, torture and kill those who
simply demand a vote.
From China
to Syria to Zimbabwe to Saudi Arabia, the world has 50 dictatorships where its
people are denied democracy in even the most basic form.
That is the
big issue, not whether voters in any western democracy should be denied a
referendum vote because they might not make the correct decision according to
the elites.
'Populist
suicide'?
But it's not
just in Canada that elites want referenda banned.
In the
United States, The New Republic magazine's Alex Shephard takes
the same elitist view of Brexit as Cappe:
"Referendums
are bad. There are many takeaways from Great Britain's decision to leave the
European Union, but one of the simplest is that referendums are bad and,
ironically, anti-democratic," Shephard wrote in late June.
"Referendums
are, by definition, simple yes-or-no answers to problems that are enormously
complicated, or that have enormously complicated ramifications that voters may
not entirely understand," he says.
And in
Europe, the same effete elitist attitude persists.
Top French
trade lawyer Laurent Cohen-Tanugi called direct democracy "populist
suicide" in a Le Monde article,
adding that a referendum to determine policy like Brexit is "contrary to
the dignity of public office" and "opportunistic and demagogic."
What merde.
In the face of democratic votes on important issues, the elites are revolting.
But here in
Canada, it's still possible to defend the concept that ordinary citizens have
every right to have their voices heard on fundamental questions -- like
changing our federal electoral system.
Don't let the
elites take your vote away.
.
