If I were king of the forest...
The problem with politicians is that they're too preoccupied with politics and not enough with governing. They will vote against an opposing party's proposal even if their party proposed the very same thing the last time they were in power. Honestly, most of them are so wishy-washy about the issues. It's not like they actually stood for anything in the first place; their party platforms change with public opinion. And don't get me started on party loyalty. I've seen politicians switch parties mid-stream. (And how does that work in a democracy in the first place? "Hey, I know you all voted to make this riding liberal, but I've switched parties so this riding is Conservative now." WTF?)
Now, I'm not the kind of guy to bitch about something without offering a solution, so here's what I think we should do.
Every five years we should put every politician's name into a hat, and then assign them to a political party by random draw. First name out of the hat—Liberal; second name—Conservative; third name—NDP; fourth name—Green Party; repeat until all the names are drawn.
For you Americans it would be even easier as you only really have to worry about the Republican and Democratic parties—although it might be fun to add a third Independent-Lunatic-Fringe-That-Doesn't-Stand-A-Hope-In-Hell-Of-Winning party.
Politicians might not be so fast to veto a good idea just because it was another party's good idea, especially if odds are they might actually belong to that party in a few years.
Then maybe—just maybe—they would actually vote on policies based on the merits of the policy, and they could stop wasting time blaming the other guy for everything that went wrong and taking credit for everything that went right.
Maybe they would run on a platform based on results. "I voted to support this, this and this, and look how great that turned out. I voted against this and this, and we all know what a disaster they turned out to be."
Of course that presupposes that we as voters would actually vote in candidates based on their record, and not because they're cute.
Now, I'm not the kind of guy to bitch about something without offering a solution, so here's what I think we should do.
Every five years we should put every politician's name into a hat, and then assign them to a political party by random draw. First name out of the hat—Liberal; second name—Conservative; third name—NDP; fourth name—Green Party; repeat until all the names are drawn.
For you Americans it would be even easier as you only really have to worry about the Republican and Democratic parties—although it might be fun to add a third Independent-Lunatic-Fringe-That-Doesn't-Stand-A-Hope-In-Hell-Of-Winning party.
Politicians might not be so fast to veto a good idea just because it was another party's good idea, especially if odds are they might actually belong to that party in a few years.
Then maybe—just maybe—they would actually vote on policies based on the merits of the policy, and they could stop wasting time blaming the other guy for everything that went wrong and taking credit for everything that went right.
Maybe they would run on a platform based on results. "I voted to support this, this and this, and look how great that turned out. I voted against this and this, and we all know what a disaster they turned out to be."
Of course that presupposes that we as voters would actually vote in candidates based on their record, and not because they're cute.
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