Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from March 2006

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from March 2006

It's showtime.(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--INTRODUCTION)(influence of television on culture)
March 1, 2006... Two days after the January 2(106 federal election both CTV and CBC bought full-page advertisements in major newspapers across the country. Each network claimed to have beaten the other in attracting viewers for its election results coverage....

A tarnished image.(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--TRUST)(distrust of politicians)
March 1, 2006... Surveys show that politicians have now displaced used car salespeople as the most distrusted members of our society. The people we send to the nation's capital to run the affairs of the country are less trusted than the guy on the corner lot...

Speaking truth to power: the line between the public service and politics is a fine, and sometimes, faint one. Some politicians cross that line and ask civil servants to take some action that is clearly political in nature. That's when bureaucrats face the difficult choice between letting it go or saying forcefully, "No, Minister".(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--GOMERY REPORT)(John Gomery)
March 1, 2006... Ottawa's bureaucracy is structured like a pyramid. At the lowest levels are large numbers of civil servants whose job it is to keep the machinery of government running. These are the people that ensure pension cheques go out at the right time...

Bureaucratic fog: the machinery of government is so complex that very few people can navigate their way through with clarity.(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--ACCOUNTABILITY)(Gomery Inquiry)
March 1, 2006... The infamous Sponsorship Program ran for ten years. It cost taxpayers about $330 million, of which $147 million went to communication and advertising agencies for fees and commissions. Some of the money was stolen but, because the thieves...

Follow the leader: over the past few decades Parliament has become less and less relevant as power has been concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office.(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--PARLIAMENT)
March 1, 2006... Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (in office 1968-84) once famously said that backbench Members of Parliament were "trained seals." Not content with one insult, Mr. Trudeau went on to say that, "When they get home, when they get out of...

Balancing ballots: until the recent string of minority parliaments, Canada had majority governments that controlled 100 percent of the power while capturing less than half the popular vote in elections.(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--ELECTIONS)
March 1, 2006... Following the most recent federal election, the voices calling for electoral reform were not as loud as in the past. One reason? More people turned out to vote reversing the downward trend of the previous five national votes. Another reason?...

Win some, lose some: while many countries are moving toward more democratic systems, others cling to authoritarian rule.(DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT--GLOBAL)
March 1, 2006... The growth of democracy is a constant struggle to wrest power from the hands of self-preserving elites. In recent years, the elites have been booted out of their privileged spots in many places--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ukraine, Georgia, the...

Quote ... unquote.
March 1, 2006... "If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost." Aristotle "According to SES Research, half of [Canadians]...