Principles
· The role of government is to facilitate good governance, peace, justice, economic sustainability and environmental well being, with a global consciousness and long-term perspectives.
· People have the need, responsibility and right to be directly involved in the economic and political decisions that affect their lives, and the recognition of this is fundamental to all decision making processes and actions of government, economic and other social institutions. Canadians desire the responsibility and the right to be directly involved in the economic political process
· Government should be separated into three independent pillars of legislative, executive and judicial power.
· Positive democratic action is a legitimate and creative form of citizen engagement and we recognize our responsibility to build a positive community and national movement which is broad-based, inclusive, peaceful and democratic, and which demonstrates the grassroots participatory democracy we advocate for Canada.
· Affirmative action should be taken to improve the representation and involvement of youth, women, First Nations People and minority groups in all levels of the decision-making process.
· We believe that power should reside in the most localized sphere of government that is able to deal with the issue and that all individuals and community groups need to participate in decisions which affect them. However, it is important to ensure that the sharing of power to the local level does not unduly diminish the rights of other communities over their own decisions or that of society as a whole.
· Participation in government and civic affairs requires access to information, accountability and transparency in government and related bodies. This requires legislation reform to update, renew and amend the freedom of information act , whereby the right of people to know takes precedence over the need for secrecy in government in a timely manner
· Active participation in parliamentary democracy is only one aspect of the broader democracy we seek.
· Within the present system of parliamentary democracy, proportional representation more readily reflects the community.
· The Central Party of Canada supports a Canada with a periodic review and amendment to the constitution which includes a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for people, corporations and governments.
The communities should be involved in all constitutional reform and the development of an inclusive democracy constitution for the nation. Constitutions should ensure the right of local governments to responsibly express the will of their electorates.
· Democratic reform is needed to make transnational organisations, such as the World Trade Organization, UN, more accountable and committed to economic and environmental sustainable development. This reform needs to guarantee the social, spiritual, environmental and economic well-being of the Canada and the world.
· The needs of future generations should be recognized in all decision making.
