Constitutional Expose' 1: The Presidency
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by Adam Sutler
My fellow Canadians,
As Constitutional Affairs Minister, I have been charged with the researching, reporting, and drafting of the new Canadian Constitution. As such in the following days and weeks, the Voice of London will examine the issues surrounding the formation of the Constitution, and provide a forum in which Canadians can publicly voice their thoughts, opinions, and proposals for the rules which shall govern the Social, Political, Economic and Judicial institutions of our eNation.
I would like to encourage all eCanadians to participate in the Constitutional Talks on the eCanada forums, located here.
http://ecanada.forumotion.co.uk/presidential-office-f5/constitution-talks-t11.htm
while it may be in the Presidential Office, this thread is open to the general public for debate.
The Voice of London shall begin its constitutional expose' with an examination of the political institutions of Canada. The Constitution must set out the blueprint for Canada's future government, and no government can reach its full potential without the President.
The question we must ask is, "What should the duties of the President be?"
At the moment, the President retains the power to manipulate the nations treasury, be it through donating gold and CAD to individuals and corporations; or selling and exchanging currency on international markets. Presidents retain the power to declare war, sign peace treaties, forge Non-Aggression Pacts with other nations, and form Mutual Protection Pacts with allied nations. In Canada, the President also creates Cabinet Ministers who assist in the day to day administration of the nation.
We must decide on what additional duties, if any the president should have; and what restrictions must be made upon his power. Therefore we have several options in regards to the Presidency.
1. Figurehead: in this system, the President would be stripped of most of his or her power. While he may be able to sign agreements, sell money, donate, and declare war; the Constitution would require that he only do so if ordered to by a third party. In this system, Congress or Parliament would be required to draft, amend and pass any legislation on the eCanadian forums before any bill becomes law. In order to declare war, there must first be a proposal for war within the Congress or Parliament, which must be passed by either a majority, or a unanimous vote of Congress or Parliament. (Congressional and Parliamentary issues will be dealt with at a later date.) At which point, the President would be required to declare war. This process may be repeated for the selling of currency, the proposing of tax changes, and the adoption or rejection of international agreements.
2. Head of State: This model splits the presidential power in two. The President would serve as Canada's Head of State. This model would place the President in control of all foreign policy, including the declaration of War, and the signing of trade, protection, and peace agreements. Domestic issues such as healthcare, budget allocation, defense, taxation, and judicial matters would then fall under the jurisdiction of the Congress, Parliament, or a Prime Minister. A Prime Minister in this sense would be the head of government: either the leader of the largest political party in the Congress, or elected by Congressmen to be Prime Minister. It would be the PM who choses the Cabinet Ministers, and sets out heathcare, defense and financial policy; requiring the President to follow his instructions in that regard.
3. Head of Government: This system establishes the President as the top dog of Canadian Politics; and is similar to the system which currently exists. As Head of Government, the President controls all forms of national policy. The President appoints, creates, or dissolves Ministries and Ministers at his whim. The President would also retain a free hand over the control of War, Treaties, Financial transactions, and may even be the top judge in eCanada.
- This system can be unlimited, in which the President retains ALL POWER in which case the Congress merely votes on tax changes as they do now; or may be
- Limited, in which case congressional approval may be needed for passing new laws, budgets, treaties or wars. This may also result in the role reversal of the Head of State version of governance, in which case, the Congress may be needed to approve War Proposals, Tax changes, and International Treaties; but the President and his Cabinet control everything else.
What system do you believe should regulate the Presidency?
Remember that these proposals are not set in stone. If you have your own proposals feel free to voice them either here, or within the Constitutional Talks thread. We may take elements from all three proposals as well.
Should the Presidency be limited in any way, and if so, how so?
- Adam Sutler, Minister of Constitutional Affairs.
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Comments
I think making the Prime Ministert a Figurehead is the best thing to do.
In my opinion, based on what happened with Faltnor and the signing of the peace treay among others as well as the inability to sign MPPs.
Everything should go through a secondary group of people that hold power just so that the Prime Minister cannot do any backdoor deals.
As usual, great article, you are one of the reasons that Canada is the intelectual elite of eRepublik.
Frankly a limited option three would do for now. I don\'t no if ecanada is active enough to to handle option 1 and 2. It could be proven wrong however if enough people reply to this post 🙂
How about everything is decided by congress, but the president gets a large amount of votes to place on a subject?
I would participate more, but I tried to register yesterday and the email is yet to arrive. Perhaps a typo in the email adress box?
for the forums? Braham just took over the forums and is new to administering forums, it might take a bit for the forums to be run smoothly
It\'s pretty simple and I have it down for the most part. I got you masked last night Uraczak. I am still triyng to iron out the new cabinet and soon to be congress sections.
You got me masked, you say? Strange, I still need that confirmation email that is yet to come to get in.
check your junk mail, it some times ends up there
Nope. I must have put a typo in the email field. Silly me. Anyway to fix it?
I think you guys ought to think it through completely. I know that the fiasco with Faltnor has you steamed, but he shouldn\'t screw it up for the rest of eCanadian history. Do you think you would\'ve done the same thing in his shoes? And remember that one of his advisors was suggesting him to take that deal....you should be able to put some amount of trust into your president, but not all. If I were eCanadian, I\'d choose the middle option, as I will when we (if we ever...) draft ours
I believe a limited head of government option would best suit our situation and the game mechanics. Congressional empowerment requires a large and active citizenry and the time for policy creation and implementation will suffer. Now these are certainly things that are subject to change, but I still feel a head of government model, similar to the real Canadian model in which the executive branch is the policy maker, where parliament acts as a overseer is the best option for eCanada both in the short and long run.
Emerick, I would certainly have not done the same if I had been in his shoes.
That said, it is in the past.
Emerick, while you may be one of the more respected international journalists, we would appreciate it if you refrained from injecting yourself in Canadian policy discussions, unless you become a Candian citizen yourself. This article designed to educate and stimulate Canadian debate. If you WERE a Canadian, I would invite you to share your candor. Seeing as you are not a Canadian citizen, we respectfully ask that you refrain from commenting from the peanut gallery.
I\'m sorry, just thought I\'d give my input
*leaves*
The Norsefire Partys mission owns, and great job Adam 🙂
Thank you, congresswoman Schyman.