Much Ado About The Deep State, NOT

This post is written from a Canadian perspective.

Deep state is a term used for (real or imagined) potential, unauthorized and often secret networks of power operating within a government but independently of its political leadership, in pursuit of their own agendas and goals. (Source:Wikipedia)

The above is the commonly understood definition of the Deep State. This post is not about that but more about my own intuitive understanding of the phrase deep state before I discovered the conspiracy theorists had appropriated the phrase.

This post is about recognizing and thanking the thousands of professional career public servants that serve faithfully in a non-partisan manner providing services and benefits to the people regardless of which party is in power.

In particular I want to recognize those who serve Elections Canada ensuring our elections and held in a fair and democratic manner free of political influence, as well as those that serve Parliament keeping the wheels of democracy turning. As well we recognize that the judges and Crown prosecutors and others within justice system that ensure justice is provided free of political influences are worthy of thanks, and those in the foreign service that serve Canada abroad. There are countless others throughout government serving the people faithfully that deserve our thanks. And we must also recognize those in provincial and municipal public service as well as the broader public sector providing education and health care to Canadians.

These are the people that make government work and provide the benefits and services we all depend on without any political agenda. Thank You.

Three Ways to Improve American Politics

I am writing this as a citizen of a world (and also as someone with a degree in Political Science) that no matter where we live are strongly impacted by whatever America does and whatever happens in America.

There are no easy solutions to the problems facing America today as I wrote in THE FIFTH COLUMN: Can America Be Saved.

These are the three most important changes I think need to be made to American electoral politics, although all three would require a tremendous amount of political will to make them happen.

1 – Eliminate politicians from controlling the electoral process

Elections cannot be free and democratic if they are run by politicians that benefit from their results, especially when they have a history of gerrymandering boundaries and suppressing the voting ability of their opponents voters. The United States needs a single neutral non-partisan non-political agency similar to Elections Canada to oversee their federal elections.

2 – Eliminate money from controlling the electoral process

Money should not be a gatekeeper to the electoral process. Elections should not be something that can be bought. Voting should not be like shopping where whoever spends the most on marketing gets the most customers. There need to be reasonable limits on spending by parties and candidates. There also needs to be reasonable limits on donations to political parities and candidates including a ban on corporate donations and the elimination of PACs and Super PACs. If people want to donate they should donate to the candidate of their choice or to a registered political party..

For example Canada’s spending and donation limits are outlined here:

Understanding spending limits – Elections Canada

Limits on Contributions – 2025 – Elections Canada

3 – Eliminate the domination of two parties in the electoral process

The American two party system, which shuts out any other party’s candidates, with a few notable exceptions like Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and a few left leaning Democrats who might be considered Social Democrats, limits the representation of Americans political views to those of the two major parties and leaves many voters not voting for their choice of candidate or party but for the lessor evil of the two parties they do not support, and leaves many voters feeling unrepresented and that their votes do not count.

The solution to this, at least for the House of Representatives, would be the implementation of Proportional representation that would see all Americans political views represented and all votes counting.

Proportional representation would be difficult to do in the Senate with only two Senators per state, although possibly feasible with 4 Senators per state. Alternatively Ranked voting would at least allow voters to select their preferred candidate as their first choice.

And then there is the Presidency with the archaic Electoral College system which can, and has, allowed the candidate with the fewer votes (of the actual voters) to become President. Why there has not been a popular uprising against this I will never understand. Clearly since proportional representative cannot be used for a single position, the obvious choice is a direct popular vote of citizens using ranked voting to elect the President, allowing every voter to vote for their preferred candidate as their first choice without losing the opportunity vote for their choice of the two leading candidates at the end of the process.

Postscript –The Senate

When I was looking at the impact of the two party system on the representation of American voters political positions and philosophies in Congress I could not help but think about the Senate and the issue of Representation by population. I am aware the Senate was not intended to be based on rep by pop but I was not aware of just how egregious the rejection of that principal was, considering that the Senate has as much political power as the House of Representatives and indeed individual Senators seem to be more influential than individual Members of the House of Representative.

As of 2025 the population of the 50 American states is 347.3 million (Source), while the population of the 25 least populated states is under 10 million (Source). The math says the voters in the least populated states have over 30 times the representation in the Senate than the voters in the most populated states. Again I have to say I do not understand why there has not been a popular uprising against this among the 97% of excessively under-represented voters.

I have no solution for this but it seems to me to be an affront to democracy. I sometimes wonder if Americans think their political system is god given and they have no right to change it.

Obama, Trump & The Nobel Peace Prize

The world took a collective sigh of relief when Donald Trump did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, though nobody but Donald expected he would.

Donald Trump has always been someone craving praise and ever since the first black American President was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he has coveted it.

Trump claims to have ended six or seven wars and has an actual claim to helping negotiate the recent Gaze ceasefire, although that actually happened just after this years Peace Price recipient was chosen.

How long this ceasefire will last is not known but many experts do not see it as a path to lasting peace.

The Nobel Peace Price over time has evolved to become about much more than just peace. .

Obama received it “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.

It is as much about making the world a better place as it is about peace. It is also not just a prize for one single achievement but is as much about what the recipient stands for and believes in and for their character, which is why Obama received it and Trump never will.

What Is True Democracy

If your idea of democracy stops at majority rule it is not true democracy. If your idea of democracy allows the majority to oppress minorities it is not true democracy. If your idea of democracy provides political power based on income and wealth it is not true democracy.

Yes true democracy includes free elections based on one person one vote but it is much more than that. The electoral system must not be unduly influenced by money and it must elect a legislature that represents all philosophical/political viewpoints of it’s citizens, preferably through some form of proportional representation.

True democracy must balance majority rule with minority rights and it must balance individual rights with collective rights.

True democracy must include some aspics of libertarianism as well as many aspects of socialism.

From libertarianism we discard the extreme individualism but keep individual freedom of thought, belief, conscience and freedom of expression, including freedom of the press/media. We also add, though not usually considered libertarian but certainly philosophically libertarian, the right to be ones self, particularly regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

From socialism we include collective and economic rights including freedom of association and collective bargaining, freedom of peaceful assembly, the right to employment and access to affordable housing, publicly funded education and health care, as well as economic security provided via a guaranteed annual income or universal basic income, as well as a progressive tax system that reduces economic inequality.

You cannot have political equality and thus a true democracy in a country that has massive economic inequality.

True democracy also includes individual responsibilities, such as being politically aware and active and caring for and helping your fellow citizens.

Diversity also strengthens a true democracy.

True democracy is not electing a dictator every four to five years.

Cryptocurrency and War – Cousins in Absurdity – Challenged by AI

Cryptocurrency – a way to supposedly create wealth by wasting massive amounts of water and energy to do meaningless computer calculations that solve no actual real life problems or serve any useful purpose but somehow create economic wealth for a few select people.

And War – a way to stimulate the economy supposedly creating economic growth, not by creating anything but by destroying infrastructure and killing people, while creating wealth for a few select people.

Both are absurdities of capitalism recently being challenged by so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) which also wastes massive amounts of water and energy to create gibberish and wealth for a few select people.

Ain’t capitalism grand.

On The Record

Having accepted the evidence, without reciting it all here, The Fifth Column is going On The Record as recognizing that, among other things, Israel is committing genocide in Palestine.

How to Build an Intelligent Online Answer Machine

Ever since Facebook and Amazon people have become lazier, or perhaps more accurately addicted to convenience over all else, including ethics or accuracy.

When it comes to information we used to search out reliable sources and read information in detail to find answers to our questions Now people just seek to ask so-called “chatbots” the question and accept whatever it gives them based on so called artificial intelligence (AI) which has nothing to do with intelligence or even accurate knowledge, being based on Large Language Models (LLMs) which probe the depths of the Internet to try to guess at what type of answer a real person would give based on all the garbage ever posted on the Internet, ignoring the Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO) principal.

If people insist on not doing their own research there must be a better way for an “Online Answer Machine” to do it for them.

First you need a decent search engine that can handle AND, OR, NOT and “quotation marks for exact phrase searches” Boolean operators. Google Advanced Search at it’s prime before enshitification would be ideal.

You also need a sophisticated algorithm (some people might call this AI) that can translate natural language questions into Boolean search terms and identify the subject of the question.

The next part is the key to the whole process. You need a human curated database of accurate, reliable and authoritative information sources (web sites or other online sources) indexed by subject matter.

When a question is asked the algorithm would translate it into search terms, determine the subject and search the appropriate sources for that subject to extract an answer for the user, along with citations and links to the sources the answer was taken from.

This certainly will not be as good as doing your own research choosing your own sources but this would not be built for people who want to, or know how to, do their own research.

Historical Mythology – WWII: The Anti-Fascist War

As we watch the direction the American Trump regime is taking today we are seeing a lot of commentary and memes referencing how the allies went to war against German facism in the Second World War.

While it is true that Hitler’s Nazi Regime was fascist, that is not why the allied countries went to war with Germany. If they opposed fascism they would have acted against the fascist regime in Spain rather than calling those of the anti-fascist International Brigades dangerous communists and worst. They would have opposed Germany when it went fascist.

As to opposing German antisemitism, there was enough antisemitism to go around including within the allies, some of whom sent away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany during the war. Also it is likely that some, if not most, of the western support for the creation of the State of Israel was to avoid Jewish immigration. The war only became about saving the Jews during the war, particularly when the allies discovered that Germany’s concentration camps were not work camps but extermination camps. It should be noted that the United States and Canada had internment camps of their own for undesirable “foreigners” of the wrong race, that included Canadian and American citizens.

The Second World war was not about fascism but about German expansionism. If Hitler had stopped at The Sudetenland there likely would have not have been World War II.

But post-war, the mythology became useful as a way to portray the western countries as places where fascism or genocide would never be tolerated even as we watch the history currently unfolding before us today.

Black and White Photo Versions of an Industrial Site

I was reviewing my Portugal Bike tour photos for PC wallpaper suitable photos and noticed this industrial shot that I thought might look better in black and white. So I opened it up in Franzis Black and White Projects to see what it would look like. Franzis Black and White Projects allows for a multitude of different black and white variations of the photo and in this case it did not disappoint, probably providing more variation than editing the photo as colour photo would. In this case some of the variations had subtle differences and some of the effects were more strikingly different.

I am presenting these photos in a slideshow, the first being the original unedited colour photo from my Panasonic Lumix FZ300 camera, followed by the black and white variations and ending with a colour version edited with Franzis HDR (high dynamic range) Projects.

 

 Recommend Viewing Slideshow Fullscreen

I’m Supposed to Write a Blog Post Today

When I rebooted this blog in the fall of 2018 I made a commitment to post at least once a month and so far I have kept that promise to myself. However I have not posted yet this month and it has been over a month since my last post. But what to write about.

Our neighbours to the south in the United States seem to be going deeper into the abyss day by day. People blame Trump, people blame the system, people blame the voters. But what more can be said that has not been said before.

In the Middle East a brutal genocide is being carried on against the Palestinian people by a governing regime of a state that was founded by holocaust survivors. Whatever can one say about that.

And what can we say about the British Labour party going off the ideological rails.

In Canada the people united to keep the Maple MAGA Conservative Party out of power by electing a Liberal government led by a small c conservative who has been called a climate activist. And this government thinks the key to our future is in becoming a fossil fuel superpower. How does one react to that.

I am at a loss for words about what to say about these things so there is no blog today,

Portugal Bike Tour Slideshows

These photos were taken during the excellent Pedal and Sea Adventures  Portugal’s Blue Coast Cycling Tour featuring excellent guides and lovely accommodations. There was a lot of climbing and some wonderful descents, but at 75 I was fortunate to be on an e-bike as I would not have managed on an ordinary bicycle.

Map of Route

 

Altitude Profile

 

Lisbon Before Portugal Bike Tour Slideshow

 

Portugal Bike Tour, Day 1 on the bus Slideshow

 

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 1 (Sesimbra to Setúbal) Slideshow

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 2 (Setúbal to Santiago do Cacém) Slideshow

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 3 (Santiago do Cacém to Vila Nova do Milfontes) Slideshow 

 

 Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 4 (V.N. Milfontes to Alejezur) Slideshow

 

 

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 5 (Alejezur to Lagos) Slideshow

Portugal Bike Tour, Final Day at the Hotel Slideshow

Vienna After Portugal Bike Tour Slideshow

 

The Non-Profit Small Business Model

The non-profit small business model provides interest free start-up loans to individuals or groups who apply to start a non-profit business. The application must include a business plan with a timeline to pay off the loan. The business plan must commit the non-profit small business to pay employees (including a designated manager) a living wage with appropriate benefits and pensions. The business plan must also commit the business to meet designated health and safety and environmental standards.

Any excess of revenues over expenses may be used to pay down the loan sooner or expand the business, or it shall be paid equally in bonuses to all employees.

I do not know if the non-profit small business model exists anywhere, but it should.

The Next Four Years: An Opportunity for the New Democratic Party

The last election may have been an electoral disaster for the NDP but it is also an opportunity that should not be passed by.

Indeed the NDP should not be rushing into a leadership campaign but rather let the Parliamentary leader act as party leader until the party has a chance to rebuild itself.

The parliamentary party’s role for the next four years should be to, not play games, but support the government in it’s war on Trump’s tariffs and annexation talk and Maple MAGA’s efforts to Americanize Canada.

Meanwhile the broader party should start a process (preferably in collaboration with the Green Party and Canada’s social movements) similar to the 1961 founding of the New Party, which became The New Democratic Party, to build a true Social Democratic Party of Canada. It needs to abandon it’s experiment with left wing populism and build a party built on principles and philosophy. Some would call this ideology but the NDP is at it’s best when it is ideological. It is time for an NDP rebirth.

I would propose a two year time frame to do this purposefully and carefully including the election of a party leader for the new Social Democratic Party of Canada at the end.

This should be followed by two years to rebuild the membership and solidify links with Canada’s social movements and for the parliamentary caucus of the new Social Democratic Party of Canada to press for democratic reforms and in particular electoral reform, either through a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) or  Ranked Ballot Voting system so that Canadians can elect a truly representative government in the next election without the possibility of the least desired party having one hundred percent of the power in the House of Commons.

Hopefully during this time the true conservatives in the Conservative Party will see the error of throwing their lot in with the Canadian Alliance and Reform Party and rebuild the former Progressive Conservative Party and exile the extremists to the right wing fringe so-called Peoples Party.

Lambda Posters Year Four 1972-1973

This is part of a series of blog posts featuring posters published in the Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario) student newspaper, Lambda during the years I worked there while studying Political Science (1969-1973).

Please note: if you wish to read the small appearing print on the posters please enlarge/zoom the images.

1972-10-10 Vol 11 No 5

 

1972-11-07 Vol 11 No 9

 

1972-11-28 Vol 11 No 12

 

 

 1972-12-05 Vol 11 No 13

  

 

1972-12-12 Vol 11 No 14

1973-01-03 V0l 11 Special A

 

1973-01-03 Vol 11 Special B

 

1973-01-09 Vol 11 No 15

 

 1973-01-16 Vol 11 No 16

 

1973-01-23 Vol 11 No 17

 

1973-01-30 Vol 11 No 18

You can access the online archives for Lambda here:

Lambda Archive Laurentian University student newspapers - Lambda: InternetArchive

Lambda Posters Year Three 1971-1972

This is part of a series of blog posts featuring posters published in the Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario) student newspaper, Lambda during the years I worked there while studying Political Science (1969-1973).

Please note: if you wish to read the small appearing print on the posters please enlarge/zoom the images.

1971-10-12 Vol 10 No 5

  

1971-11-09 Vol 10 No 9

 

1971-12-14 Vol 10 No 14

 

1972-01-01 Vol 10 No 16

 

1972-02-03 Vol 10 No 20

 

1972-03-14 Vol 10 No 24 A

 

1972-03-14 Vol 10 No 24 B

 

1972-03-21 Vol 10 No. 25 A

 

1972-03-21 Vol 10 No. 25 B

 

You can access the online archives for Lambda here:

Lambda Archive Laurentian University student newspapers - Lambda: InternetArchive

Lambda Posters Year Two 1970-1971

This is part of a series of blog posts featuring posters published in the Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario) student newspaper, Lambda during the years I worked there while studying Political Science (1969-1973).

Please note: if you wish to read the small appearing print on the posters please enlarge/zoom the images.

1970-09-29 Vol 9 No 3

 

1970-10-08 Vol 9 No 4

1970-10-22 Vol 9 No 6

1970-10-29 Vol 9 No 7

 

1970-11-12 Vol 9 No 9

1971-01-21 Vol 9 No 14

 

You can access the online archives for Lambda here:

Lambda Archive Laurentian University student newspapers - Lambda: InternetArchive

Lambda Posters Year One 1969-1970

This is part of a series of blog posts featuring posters published in the Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario) student newspaper, Lambda during the years I worked there while studying Political Science (1969-1973).

Please note: if you wish to read the small appearing print on the posters please enlarge/zoom the images.

1969-09-24 Vol 8 No 3

1969-11-26 Vol 8 No 13

1970-01-29 Vol 8 No 19

1970-03-19 Vol 8 No 25

 1970-03-31 Vol 8 No 26

 

You can access the online archives for Lambda here:

Lambda Archive Laurentian University student newspapers - Lambda: InternetArchive

Canada Needs a Red-Orange-Green National Unity Government

At a time when the country that has been our best friend, ally, and international partner for longer than we have been a country has decided that we are now the enemy (and the country that was our and our NATO allies’ historical enemy is now their best fiend) we need to be united.

This time in our history is not the time for a snap election, a change of leadership, or for a Prime Minister to be distracted by an election campaign, especially when Justin Trudeau has just proven himself to be the leader we need.

At this time, facing this existential threat, we can certainly not depend on Pierre Poilievre and his MAGA and freedumb convoy sympathetic Conservatives to lead us against the attacks of the Trump regime to the south.

There is however a solution. The Liberal Party, New Democratic Party and Green Party must come together to form a coalition National Unity Government. Justin Trudeau can continue as Prime Minister until after the fall election without the political distraction of having to seek re-election.

In the next election the three progressive parties must pledge to not run against each other, with the candidate from the party with the most votes in the last election in each constituency being the National Unity Government candidate. The new Liberal Party leader will lead the Liberal Party campaign leaving Prime Minister Trudeau free to lead the country in this battle for our existence until a new government is elected.

This war will be continuing and I would propose the continuing National Unity Government (if the voters so choose) appoint Justin Trudeau as a special envoy to deal with the Trump regime.

The National Unity Government should also bring in electoral reform in it’s first term after re-election. Ranked Ballot Voting which essentially keeps our single member constituency system, effectively only changing the way ballots are counted, will probably be the easiest to find a consensus for. 

A Radical Idea to Return to Government by The People Rather Than by One Person

In the United States today perhaps we are seeing the epitome of government by one person, at least in countries that claim to be democracies.

Here in Canada ever since Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau made his alleged famous “MPs are nobodies off Parliament Hill” remarks and started the concentration of power within the Prime Minister’s Office, which was increased by Stephen Harper, and if his control over his caucus is any indication would be increased even more by Pierre Poilievre, we have been heading in that direction.

The Canadian public, and to a degree the Canadian media, overwhelmed by American media and news sources seem to have come to accept that, and people tend to think they are voting for a Prime Minister (or Premier) when they go to the polls.

But that is not the way our system works. We have a parliamentary system where Parliament governs and the executive function is shared by a Cabinet where the Prime Minister is considered “first among equals”. The Prime Minister is not elected as Prime Minister but serves as Prime Minister by virtue of, not only the confidence of the House of Commons as a whole, but also the confidence of their caucus and Cabinet. It is because Trudeau lost the confidence of his caucus, not the electorate or his party, that he announced his intention to resign.

How do we change this attitude that the Prime Minister is elected as “ruler of Canada” rather than chosen to be Prime Minister by virtue of having the confidence of the House of Commons.

I propose we get rid of party leaders as they are now selected by the parties in what could be considered an undemocratic manner where new party members have a disproportionate amount of influence.

Parties should contest elections based on their party platforms and local candidates, not a mythical claim by their leaders to be running to be Prime Minister. Let us bring the candidates the voters actually cast their ballots for to the forefront of the election process and put the emphasis on local constituency debates. There could also be a series of debates on subjects where the parties select different spokespersons to debate in each subject area.

After the election each caucus of elected Members of Parliament should elect their leader and the Governor General will ask whoever is best positioned to have the confidence of the House to become Prime Minister.

Let us bring back government of the people back.

 

Postscript: for a more comprehensive look at our democratic system see On Democracy.

TRUMP

The American Trump Timeline:

• It can’t happen here.

• It won’t happen here.

• It isn’t happening here.

• It didn’t happen here.

• How did we let it happen here ?

I am a cisgender heterosexual white male of European descent, with a Christian upbringing (though an atheist), so essentially one of Trump’s chosen people, so even if I was American I would presumably have nothing to fear from Trump’s politics of hate of “the other”, except for my political views.

As a Canadian I am also somewhat isolated from the direct impact of the Trump regime. Living in Ontario, some have compared Doug Ford to Donald Trump. But I disagree. While there are some similarities Ford does not preach the politics of hate that Trump does. Ford is more of an old fashioned anti-big government, pro-business and privatization populist.

Federal opposition leader Pierre Poilievre’s rhetoric echoes Trump’s to some extent, especially his reliance on slogans over policy and while he does sometimes play to the worst elements of his party, particularly his support for the #FuckTrudeau convoy types, his emphasis is also not on the politics of hate. At least we hope.

The Canadian leader that is closest to Trump and who is implementing dangerously similar policies is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a stain on all of Canada.

So as a Canadian I feel somewhat protected from the impact of Trump on America.

I believe we all feel a sense of disbelief in what is happening, that it cannot be as bad as it seems even though he is doing nothing he did not say he would do.

In some sense there was a sense of relief that his first term in office was not as catastrophic as it could have been. I believe to a large degree that was because his leadership team and Cabinet was made up of primarily traditional Republicans.

His new team and Cabinet are MAGA loyalists who have no allegiance to anyone but Trump, after themselves perhaps, and certainly not to the American people or Constitution.

Many believed America’s system of checks and balances would protect the country from any excessive or constitutional acts of Trump but when The President owns both Houses of Congress and even the Supreme Court there are no checks and balances and he can function as an elected dictator.

For many of us I believe the seriousness of the situation has not sunk in yet leading us take the situation lightly as a self-protective measure. It is hard to believe that this is taking place in a country once proud to call itself a beacon of democracy.

Perhaps it is the pettiness of it all that makes it all seem so unbelievable. But if there is one thing Donald Trump is, it is petty. Indeed, among all the words one could use to describe Donald Trump perhaps the most accurate and telling is “cruel”. He seems to relish being cruel and making people suffer more than anything else, even more than being worshipped.

The only hope is the emergence of an American resistance movement, the signs of which are already emerging.

Sorting The Canadian Senate

If I had my choice I would simply abolish the Canadian Senate but that would require a constitutional amendment and open a whole new Canadian proverbial can of worms.

However as far as the selection of Senators other than set regional distribution the only requirement is that they be summoned by the Governor General.

Summons of Senator

24 The Governor General shall from Time to Time, in the Queen’s Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon qualified Persons to the Senate; and, subject to the Provisions of this Act, every Person so summoned shall become and be a Member of the Senate and a Senator. (Constitution Act, 1867 )

This means that Parliament is free to legislate the process of the selection of Senators by the Governor General however they wish.

Many would suggest an elected Senate, but besides the issues with constitutional wording that strongly implies the Senate must be appointed, the Constitution also provides a regional representation that does not reflect representation by population. An elected Senate might try to claim legitimacy it does not have to overrule or thwart the will of the House of Commons leading to a potential constitutional crises. There is no need for two elected Houses though there may be a need to make the House of Commons more representative through a system of proportional representation.

So how do we make the Senate more effective.

The Senate’s traditional role has been as a place of sober second thought in regards to ensuring the soundness of legislation originating in the House of Commons. Senatecommittees have also taken on the role of studying the issues of the day and issuing reports.

These roles do overlap with the House of Commons functions so how can we make the Senate better complement the role of the House of Commons. The current government has attempted, and succeeded to a degree, to make the Senate a less partisan body than the House of Commons but it is still by virtue of the type of people appointed a political body with appointment until retirement at age 75 (or earlier at the Senator’s choice).

What if we made the Senate representative of the Canadian public in a different way than election or appointment by the government of the day, with shorter terms.

What if we selected Senators randomly in a similar manner to selecting jurors taking into account the regional representation requirements. This is not a new concept, it even has a name.

Sortition

In governance, sortition is the selection of public officials or jurors at random, i.e. by lottery, in order to obtain a representative sample.[1][2][3][4] (Wikipedia)

Implementing sortition for the Canadian Senate will not be completely random and representative because of the geographic requirements and because many people will not accept the post for various legitimate reasons but it will still provide a different perspective than the House of Commons because the membership will mostly consist of non-politically active citizens.

I would propose appointment for a four year term with half of the Senate changing every two years so there is always fifty percent membership with some experience. Unlike a few weeks commitment for jury duty this would be too long a commitment to make it mandatory.

There would need to be some mandatory exclusions such as anyone holding public office and probably also judges and I would also exclude lawyers. Others might request exclusion because it might affect their career prospects negatively or they might have other obligations.

Fortunately the one group that most lacks representation now, the unemployed and underemployed or those with precarious employment would likely welcome a guaranteed four years of employment, with the bonus of being able to serve their fellow citizens.

A sorted Senate might be the unique Canadian solution we are looking for.

If I Was Teaching Writing

(Disclaimer: not a professional writer or teacher)

If i was teaching writing I would teach that writing is a process.

The first step is putting all your thoughts down on paper as quickly as you can before you forget any points. This can be a point form outline or stream of consciousness text but don’t interrupt your thought process to organize the material or optimize the sentence structure, That can come later.

I have ignored this advice and regretted it as I looked at the page thinking there wa something else I wanted to say but cannot remember it now.

Next you want to order your points in the most effective order to make your arguments. This may be something you redo as you go along, particularly as you add points you did not think of in stage one. Always jot those new points down as they come to you you can order them and refine them later.

So far grammar and sentence structure has been irrelevant as it has been all about ideas.

So now let’s make it look like writing, turning what you have into organized readable writing recognizing who your audience is and tailoring the style, academic, journalistic, or other to your audience.

After you have a properly written text it is time to optimize it by making sure you are using the most appropriate qualifiers, adjectives and adverbs, and that your spelling and grammar are correct. Everyone has their favourite errors so check especially for those. One of mine is thinking like I’m talking and not paying attention to there, their and they’re.

When you think you have it right do a read through to make sure everything flows correctly and you have not missed any necessary corrections,

If you are writing for the web, nearer the end is a good time to add any “code” you need for links. My blog uses Blogger so if I am writing for that I embed the links in Libre Office because they will translate directly to Blogger, only requiring a quick edit in Blogger if I want them to open into a new window, which i always do. Alternatively, near the end is a good time to add traditional footnotes. Most word processor will handle the formatting for you.

Time for a last read through to make sure everything is correct and flows well. Unless you are me. My process includes a final read through, but if I make any changes during that read through I do another and continue until I read the full text through without making any changes.

I have saved the most important advice for the end. The best way to improve your writing is to read a lot, especially they type of writing that you want to write.