9 - BC REFED AND GORDON GIBSON AND THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY [some interesting agreement here]

The concept of Subsidiarity is explained in these extracts from the wisdom of BC’s Gordon Gibson

Gordon Gibson is not only a man of action (many years in the political system), but is also an intellectual. He agrees with the BC Refed fundamental assertion that the individual in society is the only source of political rights.

Here are 5 areas of what appear to be agreement between Gordon Gibson’s thinking and BC Refed’s proposals.

Area # 1 - Re-federation

Gordon Gibson’s definition of Subsidiarity is:

• “Subsidiarity is the concept that decisions should be taken by the smallest decision-making authority with the information, resources, and enforcement ability to take them.”

This tends to agree with BC Refed’s stance, which is that a British Columbia government that has taken back full control over all provincial jurisdictions, and which rejects Ottawa’s power to disallow provincial legislation, will make better decisions for BC than Ottawa can. With more freedom from the huge Ottawa bureaucracy, BC will start to fulfill its potential.

Area # 2 - The Constitution of British Columbia belongs to the people, not to government.
Gordon Gibson’s remarks about the proper source of authority and rights in society agree with BC Refed’s fundamental argument. A BC Refed government will decree the “Doctrine of the Supremacy of the People over the Legislature” in the first stage of a two-stage Constitution of British Columbia.
Here is Gordon Gibson’s view of the proper source of all rights in society:

• “Subsidiarity, properly understood, sees the individual as the sovereign, as the fundamental decision-making unit, with all “higher” authorities drawing their legitimacy only from upward delegation…”

Area # 3 - Mechanism for the people to withdraw powers from government.
Gordon Gibson poses the need for the people to restrain government power:

• “… he or she [the individual] may delegate powers upward to the family, the community, the city, the province, the central government, NAFTA, the WTO, or even the UNO, but the legitimacy that underpins those powers is always on sufferance, with the ultimate sovereigns - individual citizens - always free to withdraw their powers…”

On this point, BC Refed’s “BC Direct Democracy Act” is the mechanism that will allow BC sovereigns (the BC voters) to delegate their sovereign powers to government and to withdraw them for cause.

Area # 4 - Importance of a people’s Constitution of British Columbia and a comprehensive Direct Democracy Act.
As Gordon Gibson states:

• “Subsidiarity is one of the most powerful organizing concepts for those concerned with maximal freedom and efficiency at any level of governmental activity, and thus one of the matters always to be kept in mind when considering proposals for democratic reform.”

BC Refed’s two most important proposals for the reform of the BC political system follow this concept of Subsidiarity closely.

Area # 5 - Need for flexibility in Reform:
Gordon Gibson’s caution to would-be reformers is the Law of Unintended Consequences.
BC Refed’s two mechanisms for taking power from a small elite around Victoria and handing it to the BC electorate are built so as to allow recovery from unintended consequences. Constitutional and legislative errors made by the voters can be reversed by the voters.
Gordon Gibson’s remarks above are extracted with permission from his series of articles called “The Fundamentals of Democratic Reform” Published by The Fraser Institute in The Fraser Forum: www.fraserinstitute.ca

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