What is the meaning of the BC Refed election sign
“ R = 16” ?
Under the present political system Canadian governments are free to act in any way they wish, and they do. Because of the way the system is set up the voters give away control over the politicians at the exact moment that they mark their ballot. People are excluded from power.
Obviously all the main parties who hope to become the next BC government prefer to keep the people out of the decision making process in this way. Politicians want to keep the power in their own hands.
For example, in BC the structure of the provincial government is contained in the BC Constitution Act. By passing this Act, the politicians voted themselves into power and excluded the voters from all decision making in the province. By the World Bank’s definition, this is usurpation of power.
People have asked about BC Refed’s solution to this fundamental problem for BC citizens. How will a BC Refed government in Victoria put the politicians under the control of the people ?
BC Refed has an election sign that reads ” R = 16″.
R, meaning BC Refed, has drafted legislation that specifies 4 days each year on which a provincial referendum may be called by citizens. Under a BC Refed government, and only under a BC Refed government, that means that BC citizens always have the right to call a provincial referendum on some large issue of importance to the whole province.
That referendum will happen within 3 months. The result is binding on government. No dates or thresholds or decisions or delays are left to the politicians - the citizens control the whole process. So citizens have 16 dates over the four years on which to bring in their own legislation, or to veto government legislation.
Compare those 16 possible votes to the present single voting day that eliminates all citizen control for four years.
HENCE “R = 16″. THAT’S DEMOCRACY.
To some people this may sound like a radical move, but this system has proved itself for 150 years in another country. That country is one of the most stable and prosperous in the world and its citizens enjoy the most freedom of any country anywhere – because of the referendum rights that the people themselves wrote into their constitution.
Note that this is the only country in the world where the constitution was written by the citizens, not by the politicians. That is what BC Refed will give to British Columbians.
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