Democracy Needs to be Delegated

     All the political parties seem to talk about "listening to the people" and the opposition parties also propose various "democratic reforms".  Sometimes, though, one wonders if there is a clear idea of what "democracy" really means.  The new Alberta Party has proposed a term limit of 10 years on a premier.  With a little thought, this can be clearly seen to be anti-democratic.  If democracy means anything it means "power to the people" - that is, the people as a whole having the power to change the rules of a society.  Term limits give one group, at one point in time, the power to limit the choice of another group, at a different time.  [Hazel McCallion has been Mayor of Mississauga for 32 years and the electorate recently confirmed their opinion that she was still the best choice.]  Premiers are, of course, not directly elected - another problem with the AB Party proposal, it encourages the false notion that we have a presidential rather than a parliamentary system in Canada.
     The term limit idea also perpetuates the notion that the basic problem is that we have the wrong people in office.  We all know that when we elect a new crew, it does not take long before they are behaving just like the old crew.  What are needed are reforms to the processes.  We need greater transparency, accountability, and better means for citizen input into decision making.  In short, we need to delegate decision making to "the people".  New technologies are enabling much more exercise of direct democracy.  If 7 plus million people can vote for Jose Bautista to be in the MLB All-Star game, surely it is time we could do at least plebiscites on issues.  Citizen initiatives and referenda are useful steps forward.  Individual MLA's could do more by way of developing processes to allow feedback on emerging issues.  Political parties can continue to develop meaningful processes for input into their own agendas.
     Overall, there are many ways, especially through the new technologies, that we can have input.  However, we also need to keep in mind the words of John Adams - democracy can only survive where there is "a wise and virtuous populace".