Change in the way politics has done

I think we need a new politics in Canada. We need to think outside the box about who we are, what we believe in and who is best able to represent our values in the political realm.

I've been involved in politics for most of my adult life, and I've enjoyed almost every moment of it.  However, I've increasingly found that the parties that used to represent me don't any more - while I've changed and grown and evolved, they've stayed the same. My support is taken for granted, my views are rarely asked for, and I have become little more than a human ATM and volunteer worker for some of the organizations with whom I have - at one time - chosen to politically aligned myself.

A generational analysis (best articulated for me in Lakhshmi Chaudry's article "Will the Generation Obama Please Stand Up" - http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071203/chaudhry - in the Nation) of politics has helped me get a grip on what the problem is, but I'd like to help create some solutions, too. 

I am a progressive person who believes socially responsible business has role to play in our prosperity a community, and should not be looked upon with suspicion. I believe government needs to get directly involved in addressing homelessness, addiction and mental health - the market can't do it on its own (obviously). I believe there need to be authentic opportunities to participate in decisions about our community's future. I believe in rebuilding community and not just in the political sense - I think people need to get off their cellphones and iPods and talk to one another again.  

Right now, I'm frustrated, angry and borderline defeatest about the options I have, which often don't seem like options at all.  I'd like to propose that it's time for us to create a new politics for Canada.

• I'd like to throw out the old partisan labels and heck, create some new ones (I'm not one of those "free to be you and me" types who things that you can be successful at organizing and making decisions without taking sides).
• I'd like to reform the electoral system at all levels, to throw out the rule books that so many parties and hacks rely upon for their power bases, and elect people based on the popular vote, forcing partisan organizations to change the way they do business and, uh, listen to the people again.

I have this conversation with myself and the occasional friend all the time, and thought I might blog about it with the Changeeverything community and just see if anyone else out there is thinking the same.