A Solution to Our Political Apathy?

I would like to think that one needn't be a political junky to have at least a reasonable awareness of what our federal government is doing 'on our behalf.' Yet the fact is that we have political disengagement in this country that is reaching historic lows, if election turnouts are any indication. And we are confronted with the consequences of that disengagement on an almost daily basis with the Harper regime regularly showing its disdain, even contempt, for the citizens of Canada through its lies, profligate ministerial spending, and outright incompetence.

Of Harper's ongoing muzzling of our Environment Canada scientists, decried internationally, I will not even speak.

Some pundits suggest it is the very fact of these myriad abuses of democracy that have turned off many people from the entire process, something that I have opined on this blog is very much a part of the Tory agenda. In today's Globe Lawrence Martin, one of the few writers for Canada's self-proclaimed 'newspaper of record' that I have any respect for, has a suggestion that might address this problem, as well as give the federal NDP some staying power in its current momentum. Martin suggests the following:

The New Democrats need to show Canadians a new way, something at which the Liberals failed. Mr. Mulcair needs a far-reaching plan to reshape the way Ottawa works. A “restore democracy” charter that curbs absolute prime ministerial power, that clearly sets out checks and balances, that returns credibility to the committee system, that removes the Kremlin-like muzzle on government communications, that gives the Speaker new powers to end the Question Period farce, that limits patronage, and so on.

You can read his complete article here.