Join the new world

A few days ago I made what I described as my congressional presentation. Mostly it was an article about the way that some members of Congress have chosen to behave. I gave examples of members who resigned the day after the election and probably knew they were going to do that all the time, of members who made proposals without putting them up for debate (and in one case posted a link to a frankly disgusting – in oh so many ways – image in the “Debate” area), of a member who wasn’t a member of the eCanada forums and as far as I know hasn’t joined the forums yet, and of course members who may read and occasionally vote in the Forums but who don’t actually involve themselves in the debate. I think that voters deserve better and I stand behind everything I said in that earlier post. Still, I think I should talk a bit more about what I stand for and what will make me different from some of the other candidates.

Transparency has been a big issue for some candidates for quite some time. When I started in eCanada politics back in the August elections, transparency consisted of saying how you voted In-Game – exclusively. The trouble is that most of the real decisions in Congress are made within the two Congressional forums and their voting subforums. I’m not sure if I was the first person to post my in-Forum voting record as a part of my efforts at transparency, but I did decide to do it on my own for whatever that is worth. I’m not sure that it is worth all that much. I intend to go a bit further if I am elected this time. I will not only post on my voting record but I will state the number of times I have posted a statement on the Congressional forums and will link to topics of discussion that I have initiated. It is my intention to be an active member of this Congress and I intend to prove that I am living up to that promise.

I also promised in my last statement that I was going to push for the Q4 Hospital in British Columbia to be upgraded to a Q5 Hospital. I felt so strongly about the issue that I did not wait until I was elected to bring this up. While I am not a member of Congress I – and any citizen who is registered in the eCanada Forums – am able to post in the Legislative Branch forum, which is just one step below the Congressional Forums. I did post a topic called “Q5 Hospital for BC”. It did create considerable discussion with the entrenched interests who support the fortress mentality being very vocal in opposition, and my efforts at persuasion, supported by statistics failed to convince them. I may not have convinced anyone but at least I’ve tried, and perhaps attitudes towards hospitals will change with the introduction of V.2. (As I was writing this Jacobi announced in Congress that PopandLock and NARC have raised enough Gold to buy a Q4 Hospital for Newfoundland. Fortress advocates will probably howl but I for one applaud this effort.)

It is a function of the way that our country has developed since the conquest last summer which has led our electoral system to be dominated by strategic voting and which party can mobilize the most voters and move them to get their people elected. There have been efforts to ban strategic voting, most recently with Derakor’s “Act respecting the Democratic Process” but the fact is that such a ban just won’t work the way that the game is currently structured. It is a function of the way the game is structured that we have regions upon which our imposed political system is based but regionalism – so we are told by advocates of Fortress theory – means nothing. But it may be that this attitude holds us back. I could say that it taints the process (because it does) but that doesn’t change the fact that it is the process that we’re stuck with until something – attitude or the game’s rules – change.

I may be accused of taking this stuff too seriously. It may be true. For the most part Congress is about moving money around, approving MPPs, setting tax rates and what I’d describe as housekeeping work. It can be boring, but there are things that people who get elected to Congress do that influence everyone’s enjoyment – or lack of enjoyment – of the game. That’s the part I enjoy and why I want to go back to Congress.