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Definition Summaries

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Democracy
Representative democracy is a form of democracy in which eligible citizens vote for
representatives to represent them and their interests. 1 However the basis of democracy
relies on an assumption that citizens are aware of the basics of democracy and actively
contribute in elections.2 This assumption raises the issue of voter responsibility, due to
the complex political system a majority of citizens dont bother to try and become
informed of government activities, and so dont vote on election day. A clear portrayal of
this would be the 2013 Election in BC, where we had a voter turnout of roughly 50-52
per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot in each riding. 3 Without informed voters,
democracy will never be able to effectively govern. There is also the issue of the lack of
power citizens are permitted aside from voting for representatives. Once a
representative is elected, citizens essentially have no power in what decisions the
representatives make despite the representatives being elected officials representing a
constituency.4 This is why it is necessary for voters to be aware as well as informed.
The typical voter only considers the campaign of the parties and candidates, but rarely
pay any attention after the election to see if the representative is truly doing what they
promised. Even in situations where the public realizes that their representative is not
truly representing, there is little action they can take to impose change due to concepts
such as party solidarity. In the 2008 election campaign, all parties promised new
greenhouse gas emission targets, including Stephen Harper and the Conservative
party.5 However the conservative party did not take a proactive stance towards this
issue and the essential policies werent adopted by all areas of Canada when it was
required, and now Canada wont be able to reach its target for 20206. In order to bring
change into the Canadian democratic system and improve it, the people must be
politically informed as well as aware of the activities of their government, because
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the
fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. - Abraham
Lincoln.

Totalitarianism
1 Wikipedia contributors, "Representative democracy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Dec. 2014,
12 Dec 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy>

2 R. McGregor Dawson, W.F.Dawson, and Norman Ward, Democratic Government in Canada. (place of pub: University of Toronto Press,
1989) 1.

3 Amy Judd, Voter turnout in BC Elections 2013: Slightly higher than 2009 Global News 15 May 2013, 11 Dec 2014.
<http://globalnews.ca/news/566540/voter-turnout-in-bc-elections-2013-slightly-higher-than-2009/>

4 Wikipedia contributors. Representative democracy 12 Dec 2014.

5 Michael Cranny, and Garvin Moles, Counterpoints: Exploring Canadian Issues (Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2010) p300
6 CBC News, Greenhouse gas solutions available to steer Canada towards 2020 emissions target CBC News 03 Dec 2014, 14 Dec 2014. <
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-s-climate-inaction-leaves-it-increasingly-isolated-ahead-of-cop-20-1.2853774>

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Totalitarianism is a concept of governing a state in which all activities are monitored and
controlled by the rulers of the state, and the state holds all authority over society.7 Totalitarian
leaders generally utilized propaganda to raise popularity as well as ingrain the spirit and
charisma of the ruler to all of society. One totalitarian leader in history, Hitler, also silenced any
second opinion, and this allowed propaganda to be more effective.8 Curriculum of education
would also be modified to the interests of the leader, typically manipulated with the intent to
gather the support of the youth. The false education of racial differences during Nazi rule in
Germany in order to produce racially pure children who would support Nazi ideals9 was a
product of Hitlers manipulation of education during his rule. The night of the long knives and
purges caused by the NKVD investigations under Stalin simply portrayed how these totalitarian
leaders could wipe out entire oppositions. Stalin, while creating his path to absolute power,
seemed to disregard whether any accusations during the NKVD investigations were truth or lies,
leading to the arrest of over half of his own party between 1936 and 1939.10 Totalitarian leaders
strategically brainwash the public into believing all the issues of society had simple solutions,
and the party in power had all the answers. This is explicitly portrayed with Hitler and The Final
Solution. Ultimately, the goal of totalitarianism is absolute power, and these are simply the
steps taken attempting to achieve the end goal.

7 totalitarianism," Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 14 Dec 2014. <Dictionary.com

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/totalitarianism>.

8 Laura Scandiffio, Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. (U.S.A: Annick Press (U.S.) Ltd. , 2005) 134-135.
9 Laura Scandiffio, Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. 140-141.
10 Laura Scandiffio, Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. 177-178.

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Definition Summaries

Andrew Huang Bk1

Representative Government
Representative government is a system of government possessing a legislative assembly
elected, at least in part, by the people.11 In Canada, elected representatives represent a
constituency in the House of Commons. In theory, our representatives, the Members of
Parliament should represent the interests of the people in their constituency, however this does
not always directly translate into reality. Political parties are an aspect of the Canadian
parliamentary system that causes the difficulty of true representation. Parties are organizations
bound together typically by a common ideology, and a majority of all MPs belong and support a
political party.12 Due to party solidarity, all members of a party are obliged to vote the same way,
this is one major contributor to the difficulty of true representation. The very nature of political
parties competing for power also influences the way our representatives vote, even during a
free vote in which the MPs are able to vote according to their conscience. Many will still vote in
order to gain favour of superiors and in their hopes, raise them up in the system, with the
possibility of entering the Cabinet to become a Minister. Our electoral system is another
contributor to the lack of accurate representation in Canada, as our representatives are not
chosen by the majority of their corresponding constituency. The candidate with the most votes
are determined the winners, despite the fact that typically this rarely represents a majority vote.
If the winning candidate does not receive even 50% of the vote, how can they truly represent
the interests of the people in a riding? There must be change in our parliament and the
processes that run it, in order to improve and hopefully achieve at the very least, a
representation of the majority people in a constituency.

11 J. Murray Beck, "Representative Government". The Canadian Encyclopedia.Toronto: Historica Canada 2006, 8 Feb 2006.
<http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/representative-government/>

12 Canada, Parliament of Canada, The Canadian System of Government. Parliament of Canada 2009, Dec 16 2014.
<http://www.parl.gc.ca/procedure-book-livre/document.aspx?sbdid=73cc891e-0676-4773-850b-ccdcb472ad8c&sbpidx=2>

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Responsible Government
In Canada, the executive branch of government consists of the Governor General representing
the Crown, as well as the Prime Minister, also known as the Head of Government.13 Having a
responsible government essentially means that government must have majority support of
Parliament in order to govern. In theory this process in holding the executive branch responsible
should be fairly efficient, however this is assuming the fact that our elected representatives truly
represent our interests, which is rarely the case in reality. An exception is in the situation of a
minority government, when it is arguable that this is sufficient in holding the executive branch
responsible to the people, and the representatives of the people. However in situations with a
majority government, combined with party solidarity hinders the effectiveness of this process to
ensure responsible government. As with party solidarity in a majority government situation, the
executive party will always have a majority support of Parliament unless sufficient members of
the ruling party break party solidarity. Though the enforcement of holding government
responsible may not be perfect, it is a major improvement to the alternatives of the past, when
the ruling oligarchies controlled everything, and could veto any legislation passed by the elected
legislative assembly.14 Over time, improvements will also be made on the existing system of
responsible government.

13 Canada, Parliament of Canada, Executive Branch of Government in Canada, Parliament of Canada September 2006, Dec 18 2014.
<http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/House/compendium/web-content/c_d_executivebranchgovernmentcanada-e.htm>

14 Michael Cranny, Graham Jarvis, Bruce Seney, and Garvin Moles, Horizons: Canadas Emerging Identity (Don Mills: Pearson Canada,
2009) p65.

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Effective Electoral Systems

Most modern forms of democracy rely on an electoral system as a form of power in the people
in which the people vote for their representatives in government. However, this reliability is a
flaw that can be exploited in a variety of ways, such as how a dictator may abuse the electoral
system claiming that his people voted for him in a democratic fashion. Another possibility is
utilizing propaganda to manipulate public opinion, in which case the electoral system may not
even be tampered with, yet leading to a similar conclusion. This is why Canada has the nonpartisan Elections Canada, in order to run, and always seek on improving the electoral system.
Elections Canada's fundamental goals are to be ready to deliver electoral events whenever they
may be called, continually improve election delivery and carry out ongoing responsibilities with
respect to political financing.15 Despite Elections Canada, there are still issues with true
representation of the people, as our electoral system rewards parties that receives a focused,
concentrated vote, even when the totalled vote may be equal to a vote scattered throughout the
country.16 Though this may be seen as a smaller issue when compared to the problem with
representation, as once a winning candidate is selected in a riding, the only votes that really
counted were the ones that voted for the winning candidate, with the excess votes going to
nothing. This concept of wasted votes, combined with the first-past-the-post system of
selecting a winning candidate can often lead to a MP being selected to represent a riding, that
does not truly represent the ideals and opinions of even half the people in the riding. There must
be more improvements made on the Canadian electoral system before there will be true
representation of the people.

15 Elections Canada, The Electoral System of Canada Elections Canada June 03 2013, Dec 16 2014.
<http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=ces&document=part3&lang=e#ces31>

16 Lorne Nystrom, The Case for Proportional Representation 2006, 18 Dec 2014.<http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?
param=58&art=11>.

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Bibliography page
Judd, Amy. Voter turnout in BC Elections 2013: Slightly higher than 2009. Global News. 15 May 2013. 11 Dec. 2014
<http://globalnews.ca/news/566540/voter-turnout-in-bc-elections-2013-slightly-higher-than-2009/>
Canada, Parliament of Canada. Executive Branch of Government in Canada. Parliament of Canada September 2006, Dec 18 2014.
<http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/House/compendium/web-content/c_d_executivebranchgovernmentcanada-e.htm>
Canada, Parliament of Canada. The Canadian System of Government. Parliament of Canada 2009, Dec 18 2014.
<http://www.parl.gc.ca/procedure-book-livre/document.aspx?sbdid=73cc891e-0676-4773-850b-ccdcb472ad8c&sbpidx=2>
Careless., J.M.S.. "Responsible Government". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Toronto: Historica Canada, 2006. Web. 8 Feb 2006.
<http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/responsible-government/>
CBC News. Greenhouse gas solutions available to steer Canada towards 2020 emissions target. CBC News 03 Dec 2014, 14
Dec 2014.
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-s-climate-inaction-leaves-it-increasingly-isolated-ahead-of-cop-20-1.2853774>

Cranny, Michael., Jarvis, Graham., Seney, Bruce., and Moles, Garvin. Horizons: Canadas Emerging Identity. (Don Mills:
Pearson Canada, 2009) p65.
Cranny, Michael., Jarvis, Graham., Seney, Bruce., and Moles, Garvin. Horizons: Canadas Emerging Identity. (Don Mills:
Pearson Canada, 2009) p300.
Dawson, McGregor., Dawson, W.F., and Ward, Norman. Democratic Government in Canada. (Toronto: U of Toronto Press,
1989) 1.
Elections Canada. The Electoral System of Canada. Elections Canada June 03 2013, Dec 16 2014.
<http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=ces&document=part3&lang=e#ces31>
Nystrom, Lorne. The Case for Proportional Representation. 2. Vol. 26. 2006. 15 Dec 2014.
<http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?param=58&art=11>

Scandiffio, Laura. Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. (U.S.A: Annick Press (U.S.) Ltd. 2005) 134-135.
Scandiffio, Laura. Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. 140-141.

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Scandiffio, Laura. Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. 177-178.

"Totalitarian." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 30 Dec. 2014.
<Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/totalitarian>
Wikipedia contributors. "Representative democracy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21
Dec. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <.>

PART II
1. Accessing Information
Learning Outcome
Considering all possible sources of information relevant to research topic and plan on
how to most efficiently and effectively access these sources of information.
Me

Concluded on which aspect of each term I would want to focus on after broad
reading on each topic from tertiary sources

Visited the library to consult the librarians on which sources would be of most use
to my research

Collected relevant books, visited the Librarys academic search database

Skim through all sources to slim down the pool of sources at hand
2. Assessing Information
Learning Outcome
Developing a method in weighing each source on content, usability or relevance to
topic
Me

Skim through sources again to grasp the pros and cons of each source

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Take notice on which sources offer more on-topic or more useful information
Understand which aspects of the superior sources made them superior
Some Questions I asked
Do the multiple sources I have acquired for a topic agreeable in terms of position, or are there any
differences in opinion/fact?
What is the reasoning of the differences if there are any? Which ones would I support?
Do I find the source easy to read or understand? Do I grasp the ideals and position of the developer of
the source?
Do the sources prompt me to think deeper about the topic? Do they allow me to debate with myself on
the multiple positions of a topic?

3. Evaluation
Learning Outcome
Creating a criteria to select the most relevant and effective sources utilized to
complete research.

My Criteria (All Based off of the questions I asked about each topic in 2. Assessing Information)
Does the source clearly portray their position or ideal on topic? Are there other sources that support
the position or ideal?
Are the sources easy to understand? Are they mostly on topic?
Do the sources prompt me to think deeper on topic? Can I create a debate around multiple positions
brought up by all my sources?
Do I support the source? If not, why? Is it still effective in my research if I do not support it? Will it
contrast with my position to highlight my position? Will it be necessary to include two or more
arguments in my research? Will it improve the content I include in my writing?

4. Organizing information
Learning Outcome
Once sufficient information is collected and understood, interpret it and produce a
product that effectively expresses a position while utilizing the sources of
information to support the position made.
Me
I wrote the definition summaries above. :))