I was told for most of my life that if you don’t vote then don’t complain!  That is the basic premise behind democracy, however I believe the opposite is true, if you vote then you do NOT have a voice.

Alberta is having an election on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 and the US is having a big election in November for ‘President’.  So I thought it would be great to have some discussions about what this really means.

When ‘constituents’ elect a MLA, MP or President, a fiduciary relationship is established.  The constituents were the grantor and the individual elected becomes the agent, which carries fiduciary responsibilities.  A trust is established but something more important happens.  The ‘constituents’ voluntarily elect him / her to ‘represent’ them.  This is, in my opinion, a form of ‘power of attorney’.  As such the elected representative now has the ‘constituents’ authority to act on their behalf and as such the ‘constituents’ no longer have the authority to say anything because they passed that authority onto their ‘representative’.

I found a very interesting court ruling from the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In this ruling it implies the ‘supreme authority’ being the people.

[24]   In Canada , the Crown exists in the form of the federal Governor General or provincial Lieutenant Governors.  Canadian constitutional law does not grant Governor Generals and Lieutenant Governors the powers of absolute monarchs.  Instead, it recognizes that these monarchial powers are now vested in the legislature.  As Hogg, supra, states at 241 – 242:

Since 1930, all Canadian Governors General have been selected by the Canadian Prime Minister with the Queen merely formalizing the appointment … The effect of responsible government is to transfer effective political power to elected officials.

Hence, Parliament is supreme because it represents the will of the people.

Read that last sentence again (I bolded it to highlight the importance).  What the BC Supreme Court is really saying is that the people are supreme but because the people voted for their representatives they handed over their authority to the Parliament making it supreme!  I believe it is a form of ‘Power of Attorney’ and as such when that happens you no longer have any authority to govern yourself because you handed that authority to Parliament.  That is why the courts rule that Parliament is supreme and not the people.  I believe that happens when you ‘register’ to be on the ‘voters list’ and NOT when you place your ‘X’ on the ballot.  There are a whole bunch of other places where that happens too, but in the spirit of the elections, I point this out specifically.

If you read paragraphs 20 – 25 of the above court ruling and paragraph 67 of the Canadian Supreme Court Ruling ‘Reference re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 SCR 217’, it is clear that they view the people as the ultimate authority as represented in Parliament or the Legislative Assembly.

Question:  If you are the authority, does that make you the ‘Head of State’?

Ahhh, what a concept eh!  Interesting idea introduced to me by a friend.  I don’t specifically use those words but when it all gets boiled down, I believe the answer is YES and that is why I keep saying to people that you are a King or Queen!  I decided to dedicate Tuesday’s class to this very topic as it fits in so perfectly with my approach to self governance.  I also dedicate this class to a small group of dedicated, brilliant and extremely intelligent & generous friends who are also doing their own research and they are willing to share with me their thoughts and experiences.  I do not share names to protect their privacy, but this idea of ‘Head of State’ is an interesting one to say the least.  There are LOTS of implications with this idea and they fit i n perfectly with what I believe and how I govern myself.  Different words to express similar ideas.

So feel free to vote if you want to hand over your authority to some representative.  I don’t vote because I want to retain my authority to govern myself.  I don’t vote because I believe that God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth are the supreme authority and as such is my master.  I have a duty to ensure I do not grant my authority, granted to me by God, to any other soul.

If you like, please join me this Tuesday or watch the recorded webinar  in the private members area. I will explore the ideas around fiduciary, trusts, representatives and other key words and ideas that surround the Courts claim that Parliament is supreme and how that fits in with our actions which hand our authority to them on a silver platter.  I will also cover what you can do about it!