Janet Ajzenstat | ||||||
Professor, Department of Political Science, McMaster University | ||||||
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| Click here for essays by Janet Ajzenstat | ||||||
| Preventing our democratically elected representatives from defining the public good in the area of social and economic policy can never be acceptable. If we introduce the Social Charter we lose the right that is the essence of democracy in a country like Canada, to live under laws freely determined by our elected representatives. Jan. 15, 1998 - from "We Don't Need Another Charter", essay for The Canadian Conservative Forum | ||||||
| A liberal democracy can only thrive where there is open debate on political alternatives. It is essential that the electorate should be able to choose freely between parties supporting the welfare state and parties recommending retrenchment and the transfer of responsibilities to the private sphere. It is intolerable to suggest that the people's elected representatives should be bound in the straitjacket of a constitution that sets out one particular ideological program. Jan. 15, 1998 - from "We Don't Need Another Charter", essay for The Canadian Conservative Forum | ||||||
| Under a justiciable Social Charter the final determination about services and spending will lie with the courts. Judges, not the legislatures, will determine who gets what, when and how much. Jan. 15, 1998 - from "We Don't Need Another Charter", essay for The Canadian Conservative Forum | ||||||
