Referendums In Canada Essay, Research Paper

There are many issues of concern to Canada. One issue of importance is whether or not the government of Canada should conduct more referendums in making decisions on important issues. This issue is important, the way in which it is answered determines how much effort the people of Canada want to put into solving such issues, and whether or not the government would support the people’s decision.

If the people of Canada believe the government of Canada should conduct more referendums in making decisions on important issues the might support more money being spent on the decision making of major issues, more publicity and media attention on major issues so people become more educated on the issue, and encouraging more people to get out and vote. This might result in Canada going further into debt when they should be spending money on things such as poverty, small issues may be blown out of proportion due to more media attention, and more uneducated people who are not aware or don’t understand the issues when they go to vote.

On the other hand, if the people of Canada believe the government should conduct more referendums in making decisions on important issues, they would likely support having the government come up with solutions for larger issues, less money being spent on referendums, and people having less say in the political process. This might result in the dissolving of the democratic political system, by not having people involved in the decision making process. There is strong evidence to support the position that the government of Canada should not conduct more referendums in making decisions on important issues, referendums are very costly and time consuming.

One major argument is support of not conducting more referendums in solving important issues it the cost. This means that the process of conducting a referendum is very costly, which would end up coming out of Canadians pocket’s. An example which illustrates this argument is on May 20, 1980, the province of Quebec held a referendum on the issue of separation. It cost the province over two million dollars to follow it through. The province wanted to hold another one two years later but couldn’t come up with the money, or the support until 1995. This illustrates that there is support for the belief that the Canadian government should not conduct more referendums in solving major issues.

A second argument in favour of not holding more referendums in resolving major issues, is the time and effort to organize one is astronomical. In other words, every time a major issue arises it would take a long time to organize a referendum to help solve the issue. An example which provides evidence to support this argument is there was fifteen years in between Quebec’s first and second referendum. During those years, parties on both sides of the issue raised money to hole another referendum, and spent time trying to gain support. Even after the referendum was over, the issue still wasn’t completely settled. Once again, this supports the belief that the Canadian government should not conduct more referendums to solve important issues.

In conclusion, the government should try different options when trying to solve important issues. This is because referendums are much to costly to hole every time a major issue arises, and it takes to much time to organize and get people to vote at every referendum.