The power of Democracy is vested in the majority and in the minority it’s principle.

parliament

A reformed legislative process.

 

Legislative motions are either Bills or Resolutions.

Bills if passed by Parliament become Acts of Parliament and have the force of Law.

Resolutions are non-binding legislative motions that if passed by Parliament do not have the force of Law being only an official statement of Parliament.

Only the Council of Ministers (the Government) or Council of Opposition (the Opposition) can introduce Bills.

Resolutions can be introduced by 1% of the House membership or 4 members.

All legislative motions are introduced into the House of Commons.

On Monday all legislative motions are introduced into the House of Commons.

After any legislative motions are introduced notices of motion of closure are given for any legislative motions including the ones just introduced. This notice is given by the sponsor of that legislative motion.

On Tuesday without debate any motions of closure is voted upon. If passed any committee consideration of the legislative motion is stopped and all debate on the House floor for the legislative motion is ended. The legislative motion then goes up for a vote to pass the House of Commons in Legislative session which is every Wednesday afternoon at 1 PM.

To pass a motion of closure requires the following votes as a percentage of the full House.

Just introduced 100% 308 votes (Conservatives+NDP+Liberals+Others)

1 week after introduction 90% 278 votes (Conservatives+NDP+Liberals)

4 weeks after 75% 231 votes (Conservatives+NDP)

13 weeks 67% 206 votes (Conservatives+NDP or +Liberals+Others)

26 weeks 60% 185 votes (Conservatives+NDP or +Liberals)

39 weeks 50% 154 votes (Conservatives)

52 weeks 33% 103 votes (Conservatives or NDP+Liberals or NDP+Others)

On Wednesday the House of Commons goes into legislative session at 1 PM and votes to pass any legislative motions. The government and opposition each get 10 minutes to make a last speech on the Bill/resolution before the vote. If passed it goes to the Senate.

On Thursday the Senate of Canada goes into legislative session at 1 PM and votes on any legislative motions passed by the Commons on Wednesday. If nothing passed the House the Senate will be in regular session.

Any legislative motions that passed the Senate on Thursday are given royal assent on Friday by the Governor-General.

However you set the necessary votes for a motion of closure the two principles remain. The majority can not be blocked from passing something it has the votes for and the minority can not be ignored or overruled by a simple majority vote.

The power of Democracy is vested in the majority and in the minority it’s principle.

Domain

3leafsmallRegistered the Domain name on the first and upgraded the wordpress.com account with domain forwarding. So now the website which is a wordpress.com blog is back at http://www.federalistparty.ca.

Olivia Dorey

oliviadoreyOlivia Dorey

The budget is done in budgetese for the same reason that legal is done in legalese. The purpose is to deny outsiders the ability to understand and where possible access too the sacred writings that is restricted to only the members of the ordained priesthood. I wish her all the luck in the world she is going to need it. This is why I founded the Federalist party of Canada. If you wont to change this kind of crap you are going to have to start with the political parties themselves. In the way they are operated by insiders is no different. The tag-line says it

If you wont our politics to change you must first change our political parties.

 

Preston Manning

Preston-ManningPreston Manning apology Wildrose defections

I agree with Mr. Manning about how these Wildrose MLAs jumped ship. He shouldn’t take any blame for the way in which they did it especially Ms. Smith. The Leader of any political party has extra responsibility since the membership chose that person to lead not do what she did. If she wants to join another Party she can step down as Leader and when an interim Leader is selected announce that she is crossing the floor to sit as a PC in the Alberta Legislature. For any sitting member of a legislature if they want to change Parties that is their choice in a free democratic system. The way it should be done is at a special meeting of their Party’s riding association. Give the members of the riding executive a copy of your resignation as a member of that Party and tell the attending members of the association why you are doing it.

When I quit the NDP in 2009 I was the riding president here in Compton-Stanstead. I quit because the NDP had just decreed a new rule that stated in order to run for the NDP nomination you had to be first approved by the national director of the NDP. Wrong! All you have to be is a member in good standing in the riding and eligible to run for the House of Commons. The NDP was having a national convention that year and I stayed on to do the paper work so that the only member in the riding who wanted to go wouldn’t have any run around with the Montreal or Federal office. After he got back I then emailed the riding membership that I was the leaving the Party, no replies, and submitted a real letter to the President of the Quebec wing. I stated my objection to this new rule and asked about the election material from the 2008 campaign where I was the official agent, inquired about settlement of the riding account, and suggested a few candidates to be riding president.

Those with political memories will recall another woman who did this at the federal level though at least she wasn’t the Leader of the Party and we all know what happened to her political aspirations.

Fixed date elections

Unnecessary early elections caused by the political monarch (PM) in Japan and Israel. Japan’s last election was in December 2012 and for Israel the last election was January of 2013.

Instead have a fix date for elections just like we have for our municipalities and separate the vote for the executive and legislature. Again we do this for our municipalities it’s time to run our provincial and federal systems the same way.

A set election day for all elections in Canada say the first Monday of October of each year. In 2015 and every four years after you have the Federal elections. In 2017 and every four years after you have the elections for the provincial governments. In even numbered years you would have municipal elections. All occurring on the set election day.

Separate votes for the executive and the legislative just like we have separate votes for a mayor and the municipal council. This means getting rid of confidence motions since in effect confidence is set by a majority vote of the voters directly. Federally the candidates for the last election in each riding whether a by-election or the general endorses a council-designate of 16 to 20 members. These Councils are formed by any member of the House of Commons nominating an individual to form a proposed government. If they accept they appoint people to the ministerial portfolios in a council-designate of 16 to 20 members. When the Members of Parliament endorse a Council they have votes equal to their popular vote in the last election in their riding. The four most endorsed Councils get on the confidence-ballot. A significant catch is that no one on one of these Councils can run for the Commons simultaneously. Just as you can’t run for mayor and the city council at the same time.

In all likelihood this will give 3 council-designate on the confidence-ballot. The question being “Which of these council-designate do you have confidence in to serve as the Council of Ministers in the next Parliament of Canada”. You would have the choice of the Conservative party the Leader Stephen Harper, the New Democratic Party the Leader Thomas Muclair, and the Liberal party the Leader Justin Trudeau. A preference ballot where you mark your first choice, your second choice, and of course your last choice to form the next government. Count the ballots once and if no Council has a majority count a second time with just the top two. Winner becomes the Council of Ministers for the next Parliament and the runner-up the Council of Opposition.

No confidence motions but all members of the cabinet and the opposition council are subject to the disciplinary motions of reprimand, censure, suspension, and dismissal. A motion of reprimand requires an absolute 1/3 + 1 majority in the Commons (113 out of 338). A reprimand is the proverbial slap on the wrist. A motion of censure carries with it a loss of 1 weekly paycheck and requires an absolute majority (170). Each additional censure increases the loss of an additional weekly paycheck. You can be censured a maximum of 4 times in each Parliament. A motion of suspension takes an absolute 60% vote (203) and suspends the member for 90 days with the loss of pay for that time. You can be suspended a maximum 3 times in a Parliament. A motion of dismissal takes an absolute 2/3 majority to pass (226) and results in the member of the Council of Ministers or Council of Opposition being dismissed from office.