Choosing our future, our way.

There’s no nice way to say it: public faith in Canada’s democratic institutions is dying.

Evidence of the erosion of trust can be seen in election turnout. Canada has seen 44 general elections since Confederation in 1867. The five lowest turnouts have occurred in the eight elections held since the year 2000. About 38 per cent of voters refused to cast a ballot in 2021.

This figure closely aligns with the 2023 provincial results in Alberta, where 39.5 per cent of voters stayed home. In Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, less than 42 per cent of voters bothered to cast a ballot.

Given the many indefensible scandals of both the federal Trudeau and provincial Kenney governments, I would argue that the greatest long-term danger to our society today isn’t China, or Russia, or another pandemic. Rather, it is the undermining of faith in our public institutions.

When you ask non-voters why they opt against casting a ballot, one of the most common answers is that they feel our governments don’t reflect the will of the public. The bureaucratic establishment continues to pursue its goals regardless of the voting results, the lobbyists continue to exercise undue influence over our process, and as a result our elections only offer the illusion of choice.

In my three terms as an MLA in Alberta, I have repeatedly witnessed those partisans who are most heavily invested in our electoral process choose to ridicule those don’t vote, rather than listen to their concerns.  These self-appointed gatekeepers have decided that average folks can’t be trusted, and they need a big, strong government to tell them what really matters. There’s nothing democratic about such attitudes.

Folks, if we’re going to rebuild trust in our democratic institutions, we need to start taking control away from these gatekeepers and putting it directly in the hands of our fellow citizens. There are many easy ways to do so.

A good place to start is by strengthening our democratic reform legislation. Under the Citizen Initiative bill passed by the Kenney government, launching a citizen’s initiative is practically impossible. To hold a referendum on bringing in a provincial law, canvassers would need to collect nearly 300,000 signatures on a petition within a period of 90 days. Holding a referendum on a constitutional matter (like equalization or property rights) is even more difficult. For a citizen group to do so independently of the government, they would need to collect nearly 600,000 signatures in 90 days, including at least 20 per cent of the registered voters from at least two thirds of all 87 constituencies in Alberta. This process was clearly designed to fail.

There are similar problem with Alberta’s MLA Recall legislation. Under this process, a recall initiative can’t be launched until 18 months after an election. The petition and by election process itself can stretch out for nearly a year and a half, meaning that constituents of a disgraced MLA can be left without effective representation for up to three years. That’s more than enough time for any government to force through legislation against the will of the enraged public. Once again, this process was clearly designed to prevent MLAs from being held accountable for their actions on any sort of timely basis. It needs to be fixed.

Perhaps most importantly, I believe we need a Constitution specifically written by Albertans for Alberta. The creations of an independent constitutional convention would allow us - as citizens - to work around the self-appointed partisan gatekeepers and build a lasting document that truly represents our values and principles.

At the end of the day, democracy should be about the freedom to choose our own future. The illusion of choice is the illusion of democracy. The best way to restore faith in our institutions is to force the lobbyists, the bureaucrats, the globalists, and the special interests to take a step back. Albertans are more than capable of understanding the issues and making our own decisions regarding our future.