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I’ve always thought that in an ideal world our elected representatives would run for election by expressing their beliefs and philosophy and being elected if the majority of voters agreed with them. They would align themselves with a political party if that party represented the same views and values they held. These representatives, while aligned with a party, would then be free to govern and vote on legislation as they saw fit.

In the real world though, someone who wants to run for office joins a party, gets endorsed by the party, runs for office and hopefully gets elected. The party tells them what to think, what to say, how to say it and hopefully helps them get elected.

Every party operates the same way. They loosely profess their principles while behaving and designing their policies to increase their popularity. They will, at every opportunity, denigrate the opposing parties regardless of the worth of their policies or beliefs in an effort to boost their own popularity.

The political parties expect their elected members to vote and act as directed and will often throw members out of the party if they don’t follow the party line even if that line is contrary to the wishes of the member’s constituents.

The political parties in Canada have too much power and put their own needs above the needs of the country and its citizens. This has to change if we want a government which is effective, efficient, honourable and worthwhile.

Originally Posted Feb. 7, 2009

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