I’ve been thinking again (it hurts a bit, but I’ll soldier through).

It seems to me that we — in Canada — have given our government too much freedom. There is no feedback mechanism to keep the politicians from being unreasonable, and our democratic power seems to be limited to the right to vote. There is power in numbers, but we have no organizational group to focus the majority.

A couple of things that bother me (there are others, but I like to keep my posts short…):

  • Somehow, the government borrowed money from our own banks and taxpayers have to pay it back. Payment for the interest on our debt is the largest single federal spending item. I don’t like the fact that somebody else borrowed money irresponsibly and I have to help pay it back.
  • Members of Parliament receive handsome pensions after only 6 years of service, and the pension fund — unlike private pension funds — is not managed prudently; rather, it is fully funded by taxpayers. Private sector pensions are less lucrative and require lengthy service; moreover, private sector pensions are disappearing because they are unsustainable. Public sector pensions should mirror the private sector: reform is necessary, and an explanation of how this sort of padded perk arose should be forthcoming.

Perhaps somebody should create a Common Sense Party.

Perhaps all we need is a watchdog bureau that sits over our government and performs a sanity check on important issues. Or maybe we should insist on the right to vote on important issues to ensure the majority is being served.

I think our government (no matter what party is in power) has shown the potential to become reckless (financially and otherly), and I don’t really trust them anymore (okay, to be honest, I never did). We need some method to ensure they are serving the interests of the majority.