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( Obama and Harper: Bookends in a broken democracy )
"Oddly enough the problem is the opposite in each country. In Canada, individual members of Parliament have almost no power and under Harper even Cabinet ministers have little. All power is centralized in the PMO and in the office of the Leaders. Even still, we don't get a direct vote for those leaders, only for their party and that vote is counted by the antiquated first past the post system so a candidate with a minority of votes usually is the winner and the party that wins almost never has a majority. There are few checks and balances in the Canadian system unlike in the US
In the US, individual members of the Congress have a lot of power supposedly to represent their constituents but in actual fact most of them are bought and paid for by the corporate lobbyists through Political Action Committees. The balance of power in the US means the President is limited by the Congress and in the hyper sectarian atmosphere on Capital Hill, the only things Obama can achieve are things the Republicans want.
But despite the differences, in both countries democracy is broken. The only way to fix it, is by engaging citizens in democratic decision making at every level. The demonstrations on Saturday are just the beginning.".
source
"Oddly enough the problem is the opposite in each country. In Canada, individual members of Parliament have almost no power and under Harper even Cabinet ministers have little. All power is centralized in the PMO and in the office of the Leaders. Even still, we don't get a direct vote for those leaders, only for their party and that vote is counted by the antiquated first past the post system so a candidate with a minority of votes usually is the winner and the party that wins almost never has a majority. There are few checks and balances in the Canadian system unlike in the US
In the US, individual members of the Congress have a lot of power supposedly to represent their constituents but in actual fact most of them are bought and paid for by the corporate lobbyists through Political Action Committees. The balance of power in the US means the President is limited by the Congress and in the hyper sectarian atmosphere on Capital Hill, the only things Obama can achieve are things the Republicans want.
But despite the differences, in both countries democracy is broken. The only way to fix it, is by engaging citizens in democratic decision making at every level. The demonstrations on Saturday are just the beginning.".
source
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