Down with Ad Agencies
Whether its a few MP’s misappropriating AD dollars or a Political Party looking to “differentiate” themselves from the other candidate Ad agencies are there to take OUR money. A 17 month term and the AD Companies are still laughing at the expense of Mr. and Ms. Canadian. I found it hilarious that “newscasters” were debating and critiquing ads that the Liberals never ran?! Worse yet a few pundits and campaign managers are paying hand over fist to pay them big bucks (especially over the Christmas Holidays - CHA CHING!!!) Enough “distractions”!!! I don’t care about how the candidates are dressed, what they ate for lunch, or what songs are on their iPods. Not sure what’s more offensive the fact that we have an election only 17 months into a governments term or that the AD crew and so called journalists have managed to waste even more of our time and money.
Review the issues, talk to your candidates if possible and make an educated vote. Personally I’m hoping for another minority government. Majorities, like what the Republicans “won”, often mean FORCING legislation through rather than acting for the will of the people. Sad to say but even the Bloc have significant contributions of late regarding Missile Defence and Social Issues over the course of their term (not that I’m a fan of SEPARATION!!!). To me the next Majority government has to be earned by the party that REALLY draws a consensus accross party lines and acts for the betterment of Canadians. So far that’s leaves none of the major parties on the table (my opinion).
Well with most of my OT behind me I’m probably going to finalize my decision before the deadline. Whatever your stance I hope everyone gets out there to vote! Remember you can’t complain about the state of the nation, the province or the city if you don’t vote. Oh and don’t forget pester your MP over the course of their term. You can’t let them off the hook on any of their promises. Maybe then we can have a few more “honest” politicians running the show…
Related posts:
STRONGER ANTI - CORRUPTION LAW PROPOSAL FOR CANADA
In just about every discussion on TV and the media regarding this winters election the word corruption seems to keep coming up. This election may vary well end up being remembered as the corruption election. I’m not taking sides here regarding who’s corrupt and who’s not because i feel that all the parties involved have had their moments regarding corruption .
TOTAL FINANCIAL TRANSPARANCY OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS , APPOINTEES and their SPOUSES, as well as any government employee that is responsible for the allocation or distribution of public public money ,and or any persons employed by the government in a position of community importance who’s actions could negatively affect the community should they be caused to neglect there lawful duties in exchange for financial gains (eg:bribery)…….
PART ONE - POLITICIANS
First lets deal with the politicians. All electected officials and their spouses should have the daily or monthly financial transactions of their bank accounts visible to the public. As well this open scrutiny should continue even if or after they have left public office, so that they may not be able to accept financial rewards or payoffs after leaving office, for their actions during their time in office. The SPOUSES or life partners have been included to prevent politicians from secretly hoarding money in their spouses account, money derived as a result of corruption . both the politician to be, and their spouses must be bound to public financial scrutiny for life. Anyone that later wishes to become the spouse of an already elected politicians must also become bound to this same financial scrutiny.
The Argument against - is that this sort of extreme financial scrutiny would deter potential candidates from entering politics.
The Argument for - is that only Canadians who are serious and passionate about serving and making sacrifices for their country would enter politics.
If politicians at the signing of a pen can send off troops to sacrifice their lives in foreign lands. then a small price to pay it would be for a patriotic politician to relinquish his financial privacy.
Note as well that in a true democracy political office is not supposed to be something that is restricted to all except the rich and powerful. The public should be allowed to choose their political representative, a person of any social class , race or religion that the public want to represent them in government.
PART TWO - MINISTERS AND APPOINTEES
Ministers are in charge of budgets, and therefore require the same scrutiny as that applied to politicians. “The exceed the budget game” is the primary reason for their inclusion under financial scrutiny. “The exceed the budget game” is a term applied to ministers and government employees that are given a yearly budget. If that budget is not used up then they fear having their budget cut the next year. To then make it appear to the government that they are under funded they try to EXCEED THE BUDGET by needlessly spending as much money as possible in order to go over budget for the year so that they can ask for a larger budget the next year. Usually this is done by wasting the taxpayers dollars on needles purchases bogus renovations and unnessesary construction projects (there’s a lot construction workers in Canada with stories to tell on this topic). Also the potential for kick backs from construction companies and private contracts is also a good reason to monitor a ministers financial transactions, many businesses would gladly pay a government official thousands of dollars in return for securing multi million dollar government contracts. I am also including in this section under ministers any government appointee or employee who is responsible for authorizing cash flow to the private sector for services rendered.
PART THREE - THOSE EMPLOYED IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Judges, and government employed members of the court should all be subject to financial scrutiny. People employed by the government that are in involved in the prison system ,corrections and parole boards should also be subject to the public’s scrutiny of their finances. Police chiefs , division commanders and those in charge of or governing the actions of field officers, must also become financially transparent to the public. But those working officers who are actively involved in undercover work or who go out into the public to patrol should not have there financial information revealed directly to the public in order to protect their identities from criminals. but instead they should frequently have their financial records reviewed by at least two levels of higher ranking police agency members who themselves do fall under the public’s financial scrutiny.
PART FOUR - IT MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL FOR A POLITICIAN TO HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT ON FORIEGN SHORES
No safe haven must be provided for politicians to hide money that has been wrongfully acquired. Prior to running in an election a would be candidate would have to transfer all their currency abroad back to a Canadian bank. And if after leaving politics for private sector employment or retirement ,he could then be allowed to open accounts on foreign shores only if he had signed a form or agreement PRIOR to his entering politics. This would be an agreement that gives the Canadian government permission to have access to his foreign accounts but only for the purpose viewing them on behalf of the Canadian public.
PART FIVE - HOW TO MONITOR THE FINANCIAL INFORMATION
The internet itself is an exceptional information tool that can be used by the public. It is capable of easily posting and informing the tax payers and general public of government spending , the reason for the spending and those responsible for authorizing the spending.
As well the internet can be used to post the personal financial information of government employees eg: elected or appointed government officials. Laws would make it mandatory for banks in Canada to release financial information to the government and public regarding politicians, political appointees and ministers etc. In fact banks could open special registrys or accounts that are for selected government employee use only ,thus helping to streamline the flow of information to the internet for transparent public viewing.
** this is my idea of how to reform or amend our laws or constitution in Canada, so that we may remove some of the corruption and mismanagement that is costing taxpayers alot of money and erroding the publics confidence in our government. if you like these ideas that i have come up with here, then you have my permission to copy them down and show and send them to others. I feel that if more people see and read and discuss these ideas with each other, then there may be a chance that some of these ideas or modified parts of them may find there way into law via a grass roots movement. If you don’t agree with my ideas all or part of them, please freely pic them apart and and explain why you don’t agree or what should be added or changed. I want to hear your opinions and ideas too …..**
written by Brett Rycombel….Toronto, Canada
PS: is this whats needed to return voters trust and get young people to vote ? is it a matter of trust ?
i accidently posted this in the wrong post topic the fist time sorry metro blog.