History


  • If I Could Change the Government of Canada

    The first thing I want to start out with is a call I received earlier this week from fundraisers for the Conservative Party. Now I have always supported the party, and in ways still do. This brings me back to March 2005 in Montreal when the party had its last national meeting. Those long sessions debating the policies and constitution of the newly created party.

    The ideals of trying to give balance to the bottom-up Alliance to the top-down Progressive Conservatives. Now to see the current leader Stephen Harper disgraces the party by not knowing when to give up. Too many times in history have leaders like Idi Amin, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin and too many others repeat the same level of seeing themselves as the alternative to the status quo, then gain a position of power and do whatever they can to remain in office.

    Harper has blatantly in his struggle to maintain power thrown away the policies and constitution of the Conservative Party. One must remember that although the Conservative Party has more MPs the House of Commons does not have a majority and needs to work together.

    There needs to be reforms in the way government works, to those ends I propose a new style of government one that still is democratic even slightly more democratic than the current one. Under the current Canadian system of government, there are really six divisions or levels of the federal government. In my system of government, the Monarch will remain the Head of State, however, the monarch will be chosen in principle by the majority of members of the Parliament and all Provincial Legislatures. For example, after the passing of Elizabeth II, Canada may select to follow Great Britain and choose HRH Prince Charles, or skip to HRH Prince William.

    The Governor-General will be the only official representative of the Queen, eliminating the Lieutenant Governors in each of the provinces and the Governor-General assuming the responsibilities to the Federal Government and Provincial Legislatures. It is 2008 after all it is not infeasible for the Governor-General to assume all the ceremonial duties, or even request a greater presence from the Monarch in ceremonial functions in Canada. The Governor General is to be chosen by the majority support of the Prime Minister and Provincial Premiers.

    The Privy Council in Right of Canada will remain but will be formed by the 39 members, three from each province and territories and will be composed by the percentages of popular votes to the House of Commons. If a party receives 1/39th (2.6%) of the national popular votes, the unelected member from that party with the highest percentage of votes for their riding will be appointed to the Privy Council. The party with the most members will appoint one of their members to be “Prime Minister of Canada.”

    The senate would be abolished as I deem it useless.

    House of Commons will remain the same but the Party with the most members will appoint one of their members to be “Government Leader of the House of Commons.”

    I was going to talk about other topics too, but this post is long enough on its own.


  • Urban Renewal Saint John

    I was walking through the market this weekend when I saw taking with elderly ladies talking with the clerk at Baleman’s in the Saint John City Market holding this article. It was nice to see the interest as I have been working with the author on her website at http://www.ursj.ca.


  • I knew this would happen.

    I decided to sit and watch the new council, and once again I am truly appalled how the new council is directing itself back into the dark ages. If any group of people could burst Saint John’s economic bubble it would be this group.

    Item 10.2 was the request to start the progress by approving a letter of understanding from the City about the proposed Irving Oil offices on Long Wharf. This is a project that has a time line that in reality by the time the Port Act procedures (3-4 months with public consultation), assessment and land negotiations (2-3 months), design and planning (3-4 months), and the city’s rezoning procedures (1-2 months). This delay to delay for a period of almost two months, with persistent criticism from groups like the ILA is just a repeat of the KC Irving Statue fiasco of early 90’s. In the end it will probably not happen.

    Then if that was not appalling enough the disregard by the Mayor himself for the rules of procedure just to grandstand is going to make this session of council one of the least productive in this city’s entire 223 year history. The fact that the last meeting of council took a whole week to complete is truly inexcusable. No where else in the province are there sessions as long and less productive as I have seen by the first few meetings of this council.


  • Journal Entry Sept 17, 2002

    The CBC 50th Anniversary Special on the History of News and Reporting was on. It included a roundtable at where I believe was the University of Regina. Many of the panellists were former and current broadcasters and reporters, including my favourite two Peter Mansbridge and Adrian Arseneault. I found this program particularly interesting, as it should the transition from the only Canadian broadcaster to one of the lofty standards.


  • Mahatma Gandhi

    Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2nd, 1869, in the Kathiawar Peninsula. He was born into the second lowest Hindu caste, the Vaisya. Gandhi’s father and grandfather had prime ministers of their principalities, which made their family although lower in class very prominent and well-respected. He was expected to follow his family tradition of public service; so, he went to London, UK, in 1888 to study law.

    When arrived back in India he failed as a barrister in both Bombay and Rajkot.  Gandhi was an extremely shy person. He later gained work as a legal advisor for the ruling prince of Pomander. He decided that public service was not for him and received a job to look after the legal affairs of the Dada Abdulla & Co. in South Africa.

    He stayed in South Africa from 1893 until 1914. While in South Africa Gandhi he had faced much embarrassment. One of these times was while he was on a train to Durban he was asked to leave his seat in first class and move to the baggage compartment, he did not comply and instead left the train. Gandhi was opposed to this treatment and got the South African Indians together to offer more resistance. Gandhi was the founder of modern Satyagraha, which he put together with trial and error and his Hindu teachings. Gandhi was upset over various issues such as registration, prohibition of moving to other provinces, unfair taxes, and recognition of only Christian marriages.

    In 1908, Gandhi got together over two thousand Indians living in South Africa to march to Johannesburg and burn their registration papers. He again in 1913 led a group of several thousand Indians to move into another province. These protests led to the Indian Relief Act of July 1914.

    In January 1915, Gandhi decided to return to India and apply his methods in British India. Gandhi did not want to simply oust the British but keep up the sense of justice enforced by the British, by the means of peaceful liberation from England. Gandhi was a conditional nationalist that believed in independence but only under certain conditions. He was at times not well liked because he, for instance, recruited Indian Soldiers for the British during the Great War. Gandhi believed that non-violence is preferred to violence only to prove the moral strength and inner conviction not as a sign of moral weakness. He had done the recruiting because he felt his fellow citizens agreed with him because they were morally weak, and he felt that surrender was worst than the violence.

    Gandhi had set up religious retreats throughout India to help prepare his followers for their major task, the transition to non-violence. One of these in Sabarmati, called Satyagraha Ashram, was Mahatma Gandhi’s home for over sixteen years. During those years, he gained the support of the locals, leaders, and many others by campaigning for education, sanitation, and injustices. This led to a public outcall for independence.

    Gandhi in 1929 called Lord Irwin for the independence of India within one year. Gandhi then decided to speed up emancipation by opposing the Salt Act. It had led to the largest display of non-violence demonstrations known to date. This was followed by massive displays of civil disobedience and non-cooperation. The most notable was a march of over 200 miles from Ahmedabad to Dandi in May 1930, to try to take over the government salt depot at Dharshana. Gandhi was arrested before this incident.

    From 1934 until 1939 Gandhi, spend most of his time supporting issues such as basic education, language reform, and natural remedies. In 1939, Gandhi requested that Britain to leave India out of their war in Europe and allow India to protect themselves against the oncoming of the Japanese from the east. He felt that this would not affect the outcome of the war in Europe, and he threatened them with more civil disobedience. Britain’s response was to have him and other leaders arrested. This led to massive violent riots throughout India. He was finally released in May of 1944, three months after his wife’s death.

    In his efforts, he tried uniting the Moslems and the Hindu people to help gain independence. On August 15, 1947, India finally gained independence although it was divided into two countries India and Pakistan.

    He then spent the rest of his life travelling, trying to unite the Moslem and Hindu peoples, and spread the word on Satyagraha. This had caused people to conspire to kill Gandhi. Finally, on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at age 78, on his way to prayers.

    During his times he referred to himself as a soldier of peace as in this famous speech he gave, “I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace. I know the value of discipline and truth. I must ask you to believe me when I say, that I have never made a statement of this description. That the merit of India, if it became necessary, would resort to violence.” During the same time the most brilliant man in the worlds modern history, Albert Einstein supported Gandhi’s views by saying, “I believe, that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political mind of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit, not to use violence in fighting for all cause. But by non-participation in anything, you believe is evil.”