Thoughts:

1. The 'party' system that this country has practiced for years is a disaster, a cesspool full of "yes" men, influence peddlers, and other party hacks. I maintain that it should be illegal to form a political party and if such an organization is operated underground it should be illegal to belong to it or support it in any way.
Now, some will jump up on their hind legs and say that is their right to belong to organizations and clubs. That is basically true. If you want to belong to the Masons or the Oddfellows, the Red Cross or the Volunteer Fire Department, that is fine.

If you want to belong to the Liberal Club or Conservative Club and sit around and laugh about old travesties they have committed, that is fine too, just as long as none of these, or any other organizations, have any bearing on political matters or how politicians vote on bills that effect me.

It is clear to me that the people cannot be represented by political parties. Once we elect a member who runs under a party banner, he or she represents the party and only the party. Their sole reason for being is to support the leader and perpetuate the party. And, after a while, some fight for the leadership of the party. They usually do this after the leader has screwed the party into the ground for a few years, then a new hopeful will say that he or she will fix everything.
It always occurs to me that if they recognize during an election campaign that something was wrong, they probably realized it for some time, so why did they not demand that it be fixed some years ago? The answer is that they are timid sheep and we are just as bad for putting them there for four years based on their party affiliation.

I pay taxes every year and I have done so for over fifty years, but I have absolutely no control over how they are spent (read - usually wasted) by our politicians. I always think of the five million paid to some American for a thirty foot grease rag that hands in the National Arts Center, what god awful stupidity.
Why haven't I some power over the way governments acts? Because the member who won in my riding is a party man and I will have to put up with him until the next election. Then another party man will get in and do things just as bad, again, with no regard to my needs.

Now we get to the nub of things. The only person who can properly represent the people of his/her riding is an INDEPENDENT. Any intelligent person worth their salt could run as an independent and do a wonderful job. They do not have to be, so called," professionals", doctors, lawyers, and the like. They don't have to be professional politicians. They just have to note the demands of their constituents and convey them to parliament or legislature. It's not fancy or difficult, it's just honest. They would work for their constituents and not for the party. They would have no axes to grind and posterior anatomies to kiss. They would simply work for things that their electorate want.
In order to discover what those things might be, they would have public meetings monthly, or at the most every six weeks. Such meetings would be scheduled in sufficient locations throughout the riding so that everyone would be able to attend. I realize that not everyone would be able to be present at every assembly on every schedule date, but the opportunity would be there. Agendas could be published in the local newspapers and flyers could be mailed out and if you have a special interest on an agenda item you better be there!.



A lead time would be required so that all members could consult their constituents and get the consensus on proposals or motions before the government prior to voting on critical matters.
There is another thing that rates mention. Representatives would not ever vote with their conscience, they would vote as their constituents tell them to vote. No social mores or religious conviction would be considered in their voting. Rather, it would be the wishes of the taxpayers who hired them.
The day of, "To hell with the people, they elected me to govern them and that is what I am going to do", is over!
Now we must concede that not all independent members will be perfect, and because all votes will be public, the taxpayers in their riding will be the first to know if they have been betrayed. Such a betrayal could not be tolerated and the members would be subject to immediate withdrawal. There would be a hearing to establish guilt and as some ancient royalty in Oz used to say, "Off with his head". There would be no negotiations and second and third chances. Any reasonable person knows their duty and when they choose not to follow the directions of their constituents, they are out of a job.
It would be a matter of course that the runner up independent candidate at the last election would step into the gap and assume representative duties until a by-election could be held.

2. There is another aspect that applies equally to the present mess of government and also to a cleaned up government comprised of independent members.
The question is, how can a prime minister, a premier, or a minister of a cabinet post, represent his or her riding? It is impossible. Every turn they take leads to accusations of political corruption or conflict of interest. My MLA is a cabinet minister and in the unlikely chance he did something for me in the area of his cabinet post, someone in the Valley or Cape Breton would scream bloody murder. This leaves me without a glint of representation. Don't do anything and you can't make any mistakes.
As it is now, cabinet posts are filled from the roster of the obedient and faithful, and we sometimes have farmers in justice, lawyers in agriculture, and doctors in education and generally, they haven't a clue what they are doing. They just rely on their deputies and other civil servants who have their positions cemented through powerful unions, and the latter people do whatever it takes to keep their boss, the minister, out of trouble.
We need a National representative so lets rename the Speaker of The House, as President. This person would not be an elected member but would be hired based on diplomatic skills and reputation, and his/her forte would be objectivity. The Speaker hears all the arguments and oversees all the votes so, he or she probably knows more about what is going on than anyone else.
We know there must be cabinets but elected ministers must go. Cabinet chairpersons would be hired based on their potential skills in a particular portfolio. For example: the chairperson for agriculture might be an educator from an agricultural college, the counterpart for justice could be from a reputable law school. The chair for fisheries could be filled with an old Newfoundland or Cape Breton fisherman who has spent forty years on the water; he would know more about fisheries than the entire party-directed Department of Fisheries & Oceans.
When cabinet discussions are held apart from regular sessions of parliament of legislature, these meetings must be open to any member who has an interest in some element of the proceedings.




3. I have long thought that there are too many parallels in provincial and federal governments and there are far too many members on the payroll. I would guess that we have nearly fifteen hundred MLAs and MPs across Canada. Why not make the ridings smaller so that there is a total of about five hundred across the country. These ridings would serve both provincial and federal business. In the course of a year the members from these ridings, independents one and all, would spend three months doing provincial work and six federal. This would leave two months for special projects and a month for vacation.
Think of it, the end of heehawing from provincial to federal and complicating that by having two or three political parties groveling for legacy.
A member would be able to discuss any subject at his constituency level and know what the consensus is. He/she then would be well enough acquainted with a matter, after debating it provincially, that they could easily present the matter federally.
I figure that, considering salaries, staff salaries, travel, pensions, hardware and software, we could easily save well over a hundred million a year and the result would be a more honest and accurate presentation of what the people want. After all, that is what really counts, We The People, not the politicians and certainly not the party.