There are fundamental injustices in our very own government that affect all of us on a very basic level. What’s most troubling is that the population has accepted these injustices as if they are something that can’t be changed. The truth is that government is a body that was built in service to us and, should it shy away from its main directive, there must be measures taken to fix it.
The true problem is that because we do, in fact, have more than one party, someone is always getting screwed over. When many parties vote on something with only one outcome, it stands to reason that the segment of the population that’s represented by the parties who don’t win the vote aren’t getting what they want.
Also, having the political parties we do creates a false dilemma, as a citizen is expected to choose either one side or the other, even though they may not believe in either’s ideology. George Washington himself, arguably America’s best-known political figure, stated that he didn’t believe in political parties because the politicians were in service to everyone.
And though people often say that you can’t please everyone, in this case that’s ridiculous because that’s exactly what the government was set up to do. If government officials can’t perform their simplest functions properly, then they have no right to be in those positions.
Our government operates, in a fashion, like a courtroom. We, the people, are the defendant; the constitution is our judge and the politicians our jury. Yet if we are to look to our “peers,” they aren’t a fair representation of the Canadian populace at all. We are told that we are the ones who choose our politicians, but this is yet another false dilemma.
The truth is, with campaigning the way it is, we are stuck in a cycle of the rich leading the ill-informed that results in the uniformity of today’s politicians. It’s likely that without some sort of movement (that would have to be approved by the government) we won’t be seeing any variation in this uniformity soon.
The other troubling thing is that politicians are no longer “doing it for the people.” I would like to believe wholeheartedly that those representing us are there simply because they want what is best for the citizens, but with the wealth and power that being in office brings, it’s hard to believe that some politicians aren’t in it for themselves.
It’s true that harder jobs may deserve higher compensation, but I don’t believe that a single politician is working more than five times as hard as the average Canadian. Perhaps if we want really dedicated politicians we should pay them what the average Canadian makes and remove the entire money-corrupts factor.
We have worked incredibly hard to make our country prosperous, but it would be awful to see us give up so close to the finish line. We, the people, have the power in our country, and it’s time we used it to make it a better place. I truly believe that if we try, it’s entirely possible to bring about a brighter tomorrow.