In The Mail

27 Replies to “In The Mail”

1. Samara is not a conservatives friend. Be wary, be very wary before you buy this book.

2. “…not a conservatives friend. Be wary,…”
   So get borrow it from the library to avoid giving them much money. It is important to know what is being said by not friends.

3. Or wait a year and it’ll be in the bargain bin for $5 at Chapters.
   I waited for one of Kinsella’s books and bought it for only $1 at a thrift shop,and was satisfied that is was worth exactly what I paid for it.

4. I’m sure Chretien and the rat pack will have plenty of chapters in this book… what? No? Shocka!

5. As long as I remember, backbenchers have been bitching about having no power. Where exactly in God’s universe do backbenchers have any power? If the backbench knuckle draggers have such good ideas caucus will be all over them. A party must present a single face to the electorate. If they don’t the backbenchers will be former backbenchers. All they have to do is have some balls like Redford’s backbench and their power is unlimited but it could be very short.

6. Given that these are interviews with former MP’s and given that many who have designed or been defeated are still part loyalists, I don’t think there could be anything terribly damning about the Conservatives — few have left since they have had a majority. I biothink many must be former Liberals and their experiences will have been with the Liberal government. I’ll bet Hall-Findlay has some interesting things to tell re crowning of Ignatieff.

7. The political party is the primary means to participate in our type of democracy. Love it or not. Anything else would be a tilt towards mob rule, wouldn’t it?

8. The immediate jump to absolutely partisan comments (no insult intended) seems to corroborate the notion of “failing democracy”.

9. It seems that “the political party” has become the ONLY means to participate in our type of democracy. But I can’t understand why you’d suggest that party politics would counter “mob rule”.

10. You can find the review at Amazon dot com.:
    “This important book draws on the personal experiences of former Members of Parliament to illustrate the growing central control of party leadership—in all major parties—and how this has distorted the democratic process”

11. “The political party is the primary means to participate in our type of democracy. Love it or not. Anything else would be a tilt towards mob rule, wouldn’t it?”
    Democracy is mob rule if there are no civil rights laws. All the civil rights laws were destroyed by “the charter”.

12. If Canada is unfortunate enough to elect Justin or some coalition version thereof, I expect our superiors to replace FPTP with some type of PR, like Single Transferable Vote, and switch to multi-member districts. They don’t seem to be satisfied a nation is Truly Democratic until governments are paralyzed coalitions of quasi-legitimate losers and every important policy decision is a necessarily lowest-common-denominator compromise with every conceivable special interest group. As seen in Europe, bureaucrats fill that power vacuum quite nicely.

13. Simply a caution to those who are not familiar with Samara.

14. Er…Canada’s democracy crapped out 40 years ago.
    Quebec and some fwench parrots were responsible.

15. “I waited for one of Kinsella’s books and bought it for only $1 at a thrift shop.”
    It must have been autographed.

16. We don’t need cloistered academics to tell me Canadian democracy is not very effective. As long as there is a party whip and as long as non confidence initiative is a matter for parliament and not the electorate, we have no true functional representative democracy.
    Save the cost of this yawnfest

17. “As seen in Europe, bureaucrats fill that power vacuum quite nicely.” Exactly. I had literally dozens of personal confirmations from individuals that that is how it works in Europe on two different trips. I made a point of asking during opportune lulls.
    FKA gord, well said. I think that that was P.E.T.’s purpose all along.
    I suspect that most of the visitors here would not learn anything from this book.

18. P. E. T. himself once said that it only takes about 5 like minded people to run Canada. Such as himself, Lalonde, Marchand, Sharp, McEachern (sp?).
    He also commented once that MP’s are nobodies once they get 100 feet away from Parlianment Hill.
    Whatever ‘revelations’ this book contains, it’s old news.

19. “It must have been autographed.”
    Indeed. If it hadn’t been autographed it would have cost $2.

20. “The truth is Canada is a cloud-cuckoo-land, an insufferably rich country governed by idiots, its self-made problems offering comic relief to the ills of the real world out there, where famine and racial strife and vandals in office are the unhappy rule.”
    – from “Barney’s Version” by Mordecai Richler

21. “He also commented once that MP’s are nobodies once they get 100 feet away from Parlianment Hill”.
    P.E.T. Was wrong. MP’s are nobodies once they get within 100 feet of Parliament Hill. Their constituents usually know who they are so at least at home they are somebody. Once on the Hill however, they are just one of the herd getting whipped into shape.

22. As long as I remember, backbenchers have been bitching about having no power. Where exactly in God’s universe do backbenchers have any power?
    They used to, when Canada was a more or less classically liberal democracy. Then with Trudeau the PMO began centralizing more and more power. Unfortunately this seems to be the case with every parliamentary democracy in the world, with the possible exception of those that have both PMs and a weak president. A weak president elected by run-off in parliament would be a an excellent addition to Chong’s thoughtful Reform Act. We also need to start electing more Rathbergers.

23. For that price it should have come on a roll

24. I had literally dozens of personal confirmations from individuals that that is how it works in Europe on two different trips.
    The komrade’s had personal confirmations….dozens….literally….then its gotta be true.

25. The dysfunction of our government is due to a lazy, chicken-shit voting population that figures making an X every four years should be sufficient input to ensure things turn out okay.

26. “The dysfunction of our government is due to a lazy, chicken-shit voting population that figures making an X every four years should be sufficient input to ensure things turn out okay.”
    – Jamie MacMaster
    “Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government’s confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler if the government simply dissolved the people and elected another?”
    – Berthold Brecht

27. Yup. Tail wags ‘possum.