I grew up in the 1960s, we were taught to trust our government and they would do the right thing. What made our country great was a system based on “peace order and good government and empathy for others all over the world.
We were early pioneers UN global peacekeeping and share the invention of life-saving insulin at no cost to the world among many of our global contributions.
The initial Covid-19 responses from business leaders, our federal, provincial, and local government has not been our finest hour. Our current focus must be on containing the outbreak, save lives, healing those who are ill, and protecting the most vulnerable, particularly those in nursing homes and people who are homeless.
We then need a holistic bipartisan Royal Commission that includes scientists, business leaders, entrepreneurs, medical, and other front line workers to investigate and oversee the implementation of the lessons learned.
Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It.
Following the completion of a Canadian Royal Commission Covid-19 Investigations, we need a fundamental redesign of our ‘our partisan’ based system of government, one based upon entrenched human rights, empathy, and consensus.
A consensus government is one in which the cabinet is appointed by the legislature without reference to political parties. Consensus government chiefly arises in non-partisan democracies and similar systems in which a majority of politicians are independent
We can look no further for examples than to our own country for a working model. Consensus government is a form of consensus democracy government in Canada used in two of Canada’s three federal territories (Northwest Territories and Nunavut) as well as in Nunatsiavut, an autonomous area in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Indigenous cultures from all over the world including First Nations peoples in North America (aka Turtle Island) practice some form of consensus consultative governance.
In Canada, UK, Australia, Jamaica, and other parliament democracies meet for what they call the Daily Question Period. It is where opposition gets a chance to question and criticize the government holding power. It usually desegregates into yelling matches between ‘Her Majesty’s Government and Loyal Opposition’ whose primary purpose seems is to further entrenched in their position while ridiculing and embarrass each other.
It is time for all Canadians to be part of making courageous quantum shattering changes for the aid of the common good and transforming institutional governmental, business systems to be ‘humans first’ and to think globally and act locally.
Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self.
~Abdul Baha
Governments alone do not have all the answers and that individual citizens, entrepreneurs, academics, and business leaders have a critical role to play to see that we create transformed systems that give us: ‘Peace, Order, and Good Governance in our country, institutions, and businesses to serve as a model to others.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
~Winston Churchill
Oh! Canada – We The North
