Should government have more power or less?

I’m told a coalition government is a possibility in this election. That if the Federal Liberals don’t get quite enough votes, the NDP and Greens will prop them up, to deny the conservatives a chance to govern.

More-so, the NDP or Greens, would use this capability to their advantage, and force concessions from the Liberals on the environmental agenda and other socialist policies. We’ve seen this before, so it’s a valid concern.

I understand this tactic could embolden past supporters of those parties to stick with them, in the hopes that this situation could arise. If it did, they would exert far more power as a ‘king maker’ than their few votes ever could under normal circumstances.

This whole scenario I find truly disturbing. Not just due to the thought of ever expanding socialist policies introduced into our lives through government, but the fact that the voters have no say or input in such coalitions.

This flaw in our system of government, where parties are given such sweeping powers should never be allowed to happen. Additionally, the leadership of the nation is something that all of us should be able to directly participate in.

Perhaps the electing of a Prime Minister or Premier should be a separate vote. Those running for such leadership positions would have assembled their leadership team in advance, and created their platform. This would give us the opportunity to scrutinize our options for entire leadership teams.

They would have the opportunity to select the people they considered the best and brightest to support their platform and achieve the goals they have laid out. That leadership group would then run collectively as a team, and upon winning take that role.

There would be no more opportunity for a coalition government to be formed, because that power would no longer reside with the leaders of each of the political parties, but with the people alone. Anyone losing the leadership contest would be out completely, and unable to negotiate a power sharing deal.

The platform that the leadership team ran on would influence each individual MP/MLA, but it wouldn’t mean they are whipped, and have no voice as is sometimes the case. The leadership would now have to ensure they could count on the support of those representatives, and couldn’t take them for granted.

It seems to me that much of the political power in our Canadian systems, remains in the hands of very few. The voters have some say, but not enough.

Power is held by those who jealously guard it and do not wish to see it reduced. We should look at every possibility to put more power in the hands of the people, and have as much decision making done as close to the source of the issue at hand.

There are many examples to look at the world over. Systems that have decades of use, and we can learn from others successes and mistakes.

No matter what alternative solutions are presented to us in the future; I believe it is imperative that political power should be decentralized, as much as possible.

Norman Wiebe

Norm Wiebe is a local Financial Advisor and political policy enthusiast. He and his wife Lera, live in Red Deer with their two children. Norm uses facebook to promote ideas, so look for him there. https://www.facebook.com/norman.wiebe

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Andrew Scheer exposes the Mark Carney Canadians should know

Published on February 22, 2025

Todayville

From the X account of Andrew Scheer

Mark Carney spent his entire life promoting the carbon tax.

Now he’s trying to scam Canadians out of billions and to do it he’s put a whole crew together.

It could be the biggest con job in Canadian history. Only YOU can stop it! pic.twitter.com/1DyywsynBN

— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) February 22, 2025

Daily Caller

NEWT GINGRICH: Europe’s Elites Were Finally Told To Take A Look In The Mirror

Published on February 22, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Newt Gingrich

In an amazing show of courage, Vice President J.D. Vance offered an intervention for some of our European allies.

That is the best way to think of the two historic speeches he made in France and Germany last week.

In Paris, Vice President Vance pledged the United States would do whatever it takes to lead the world in the development of Artificial Intelligence. He went on to assert that Europe’s automatic response to regulate technological change rather than adapt to it was doomed to fail.

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Vance warned the Europeans that the Trump administration would retaliate to protect American high-tech companies from being fined and regulated by the European community.

Then, Vance went to the Munich Security Conference. It is the annual meeting of European leaders concerned about defense and threats to peace. The Vice President shocked the Europeans by launching a frontal assault on the decay of their political system.

As Vance put it:

“But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.”

He then went through a litany of specific complaints about the behavior of different European countries. They ranged from failing to control immigration, suppressing free speech, and Brussels seeking to control and define futures of independent countries such as Hungary and Romania.

The leading French newspaper, Le Monde (their equivalent of the New York Times) asserted that the American Vice President was declaring “ideological war on Europe.”

Le Monde was right. The European elites have been decaying for at least two generations. They hide behind their privileged status and take ideological positions that feel good but are destructive. Europe’s failures are devastating for most everyday Europeans.

I have personal knowledge about this. I have a Ph.D. in Modern European History – and I have lived in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. As a young Army dependent, we were living in France when the French Army came back from Algeria, killed the French Fourth Republic and brought back General Charles de Gaulle to establish the Fifth Republic.

It is now the longest serving non-royal government in French history.

The European elites value each other’s opinions more than they value serving the people of Europe. The European elites live in a fantasy world of green policies that destroy industries and jobs, welfare policies which destroy the work ethic, and immigration policies which undermine the popular culture. They simply hope for a peaceful world without a strong military.

Meanwhile, state enforced speech codes protect Islamic extremists at the expense of local citizens.

The result has been a steady decline of European culture, economic development, and defensive capacity.

The Afghan Islamist who wounded more than two dozen people and killed a mother and her two-year-old daughter with a car two days before the supposed security conference signals the willful avoidance of reality at the heart of the elite European worldview.

To be clear, I admire European civilization. I believe America is far stronger and safer if Europe is healthy and capable of growing and defending itself.

I hope vice president Vance’s intervention at least starts European elites thinking about what must be done to revive their continent.

For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.