Just a few additions.
True it is that Canada has only two levels of governance. However, do municipalities exist by provincial legislation, but that legislation can be changed at a whim. For example, the current premier of Ontario, who used to be city of Toronto councillor, decided that Toronto had to reduce the number counsellors from 47 to 25 — in the middle of an election campaign. Pundits speculated that the premier just didn’t like a lot of the councillors on the Toronto ballots, and this move was his way of “firing” many of them.
Elections at the municipal level rarely have any involvement from the political parties. Some candidates may be members of the provincial or federal wings of the parties, but there the affiliation has very little signficance in the electoral result or how the politicians conduct themselves. Seldom do they have to cater to the needs of a political party before the needs of the people.
Voter turnout at municipal elections is around 30%. Despite that, I think we still get reasonable governments at the municipal most of the time. Again, the non-partisan nature of municipal elections really helps.
And again, municipalities really don’t have legal rights in Canada. yet we are better governed at this lower level. Confused? I am.
I don’t see much point of proportional representation at the municipal levels — and I have not heard anyone suggesting that. In general, we seemed to be governed well at that level.
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The USA economy gets a little boost every time a Russian business conducts trade with a South Korean business in $US. It’s not hard to understand why the USA refuses to go with an international currency. Another 4 years of Mr. Trump might end that.
It’s strange that USA promotes freedoms and liberty, and yet is quite content that 6% of the world’s population can elect the world’s most powerful politician. In another time, we would have called this feudalism.
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In my book, I make the suggestion that a world government could be built after many nations adopt the TDG as their national standard. Then have those national TDG elect the international TDG.
I think TDG representatives are going to be of a different nature than representatives from today’s democracies and oligarchies. They will be better suited to resolve world issues.
But electing an international government based on western democratic systems, I would not be in favor.
