Two-party Canada is not the way to go

(October 28) - In the days and weeks following the federal election, there has been talk of getting Canada back into the two-party world. Frank Valeriote, the winner of a multi-party vote, wants to "unite the left." What this means is that he wants the NDP and the Green parties to pack their bags and get out of his house.

The Liberal Party has never even pretended to be 'left,' but now wants to own it. Valeriote was talking this way during the campaign, increasingly frantically as voting day drew closer. He was sweating because he had lost faith in the innate futility of the Kovach campaign.

The United States is the only major country left with a two-party system. American deep thinker Noam Chomsky says it has only one - the Business Party - with two competing factions, the Democrats and the Republicans. He's right. The rest of the world has more parties than you'll find in a university residence.

Most people have come to understand that our electoral system is no longer suited to the modern political environment. It will have to change, but we can't move forward by going backwards.

We will never get Canada back to a two-party system. Nor should we try. If it ever did happen that the NDP merged with the Liberal Party, someone somewhere would organize another democratic socialist party to take its place. Thousands of Canadians would support it, because it is always better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.

There is a better way. It's called proportional representation, and its time has come. We need to give it a serious look on the national level. It can then filter down to the provinces.

If Valeriote wants to make a name for himself, he should take up this cause. Rather than trying to eliminate parties, he should find a way to include them.

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There has always been a double standard. If you want to find out how much a worker is paid, you don't have to look very far. If she is part of the shrinking number of unionized workers, look in her collective agreement. Wage rates are set out in black and white.

For most non-union workers these days, take a look in the Employment Standards Act. That's where the minimum wage is set.

It is not so easy to find executive salary levels. These are supposed to be a big secret. It's a confidential matter between the person who signs the front of the cheque and the person who endorses the back.

There is usually a correlation. The bigger the secret, the bigger the salary. If the depth of the greed became generally known, there could be discontent on the loading dock. The men and women who produce the wealth that funds the salaries might want a bigger share of the pie. When the public complains about the cost of things, they might focus on executive compensation rather than hourly wages. Maybe then the workers wouldn't take the blame when factories move to Mexico.

In the private sector, CEOs can make out like bandits and hide the evidence. It can't happen down at city hall.

Councillors' salaries are public knowledge, as are the wages of CUPE members. Middle to upper management compensation is easily found. A quick Google search found that former director of finance David Kennedy was paid $136,000 in 2006. He left in 2007 with a severance package of 2.5 years salary.

Most of us who plod through the working world will get the minimum severances set out in the Employment Standards Act if our workplace shuts down. This makes Kennedy's settlement look overwhelmingly generous. It isn't.

Two years is fairly standard for a person at Kennedy's level with 25 years service. The extra six months indicates the parting of the ways was not mutually agreeable at the start, but became so as negotiations went on.

Don't blame Kennedy for looking after his own future. Blame your employer for not adequately looking after yours. If you can't make that stick, blame yourself for not joining a union.

It's not Kennedy's fault we live in a society with such a wide discrepancy in entitlements. It's our own fault for allowing it to continue.