#DaDhiLordWarden2017

[Glüc da Dhi]

A few days ago I announced my candidacy for the office of Lord Warden. Honestly, until recently I wasn't planning on running again, as I was not unhappy with how our province was being represented. By running I hope to ensure continued good and progressive representation of our island across the Atlantic. That said, I realise there are others who could do a good job as Lord Warden and I would challenge anyone who feels qualified for the position to run against me as this would provide Cézembreans with a choice and be healthy for democracy.

In this thread I will mostly try to explain how I will act should I be elected, so you all know what to expect from me.

[Glüc da Dhi]

Let's start with the obvious: I'm a member of the MRPT. There is no hard requirement for MRPT senators to caucus with the party, so I'm theoretically free to vote against the party line and other senators who were MRPT members have done so in the past. However, the truth is I strongly support both the values of the party, like Democratic Reform, Monarchism and Individual Freedom and the recent Manifesto, to which I have contributed as well, so you won't find me voting against the party stance very often.

That said my main priority will be representing the interests of the province. In order to do so I will frequently ask for feedback and the opinions of other Cézembreans on legislation that is being voted on. I will take this advice into consideration. I do believe that should I be elected I would have a mandatee to represent all Cézembreans in accordance with my political ideology, so I won't automatically vote along with the most popular opinion, but I will always be prepared both to explain my own views and to listen to you.

Apart from my MRPT membership, I'm also a derivatist, which means I believe Talossa is and should aim to be a nation. Further I believe in a Talossa that is dynamic, which means it should be easy for citizens to contribute but also to change aspects of our system. That means it shouldn't be wrong to amend the OrgLaw and we don't have to stick with the same system forever. At the same time I do believe it is worth preserving and protecting some of the traditions and culture we have, because these things are part of what makes a nation and what makes us Talossan. Without some continuity Talossa would cease to exist. Without change we would eventually go extinct as well. The key is finding the balance.

With regards to the OrgLaw, my theory is that the changes that are worth pursuing will eventually get enough support if we are patient. Amending the orglaw as a whole however brings a risk of taking steps back as well as forward. I don't buy that a new Orglaw is the thing that will suddenly revive Talossa and make us all active again. I also don't think that a whole new orglaw will fix all inconsistencies and awkward fixes. Rather, I suspect there will be oversights in it that will only be revealed when brought into practice and that soon enough a new orglaw will require new awkward fixes. This doesn't mean I will oppose Vs orglaw, it just means that I am cautious and don't support a new OrgLaw just for the sake of having a new OrgLaw and certainly not as a political prestige project. With regards to V's proposal, I am more or less waiting for the next version to provide full comments. As far as I can tell the last proposal includes a number of ideas that are interesting and that might convince me to vote in favour, but also a number of changes that I'm concerned about. I would probably not support it were it proposed in its current form, but that will most likely not happen anyway.

[Glüc da Dhi]

Then with regards to the budget, I don't believe it is correct to vote down a budget merely based on the political affiliation of the government. If I remain a minister (which might be or not be the case, I don't know) it means I already had to approve it and in such case my vote won't be much of a surprise, but in general I believe the budget should be voted on based on its merit. This might be some comfort for those with different party affiliations than mine. I won't try to bring down a RUMP/FreeDem coalition government by voting against the budget if the budget itself is sound. Life may become less easy than it was, financially, as Talossa is taking responsibility for its webpresence. This means I believe we should be careful about spending too much on non webhosting or merchandise related costs and also be more ambitious about asking for donations. I hope the next budget will reflect that.

As for voting in general, as far as I can remember I have never missed a clark vote. My strong intention is to vote on all votes during my term as Senator if elected. I feel strongly about the importance of good representation. Should I become aware that I will certainly miss one or more votes and I'm still in time to do so, I will resign in order to allow a new senator to be appointed and represent our province.

During my previous terms as Member of the Cosa and Senator I have sponsored various bills, both reforms of the system and practical fixes, and during my last term as senators, bills pursuing matters directly to the province such as bringing the proclamation of our constitution to His Majesty's attention. I can't promise I will propose legislation this term as well other than this bill which has already been hoppered and which I will propose regardless of whether I'm elected as Senator or remain an MC. I might propose bills to
-Include a question about provincial reassignment in the census
-Reduce the size of the Cosa
-Introduce weighted voting in the Senate
or new technical fixes,
but I can't say for sure that I will.

[Glüc da Dhi]

So there you go. I don't know if this will convince anyone to vote for me, but I hope I have at least succeeded in informing you of what to expect if you do vote for me.

If there are any questions I'd be more than willing to answer them.

[Alèx Soleighlfred]

Well, it's no big secret that I am convinced enough. To maybe kickstart some discussion and further elaboration on your positions, I would like to ask what is your stance on increasing provincial activity. It's no secret that provinces are small, so the number of active citizens is negligible, so in turn provinces are pretty, dare i say, not alive. How do you go about that? Do you think increased web presence, Cezembre-specific chat groups/forums (remember cezembre.moonfruit.com?) or anything like that are a way to go and try? What steps, in your opinion, could the next Cosa do to liven up things in some distant atlantic islands (and mainland Talossa too, for that matter)?

[Glüc da Dhi]

Well, I'm afraid the activity problem is one I don't have an immediate answer to. Active government, active institutions, they all should help, but there isn't one particular law that I can think that would immediatly cause a major long term increase in activity. It's a subject I'm often thinking about though and I would be more than willing to listen to Cézembreans who have suggestions. As for local activity, I don't think things like the website fall under the responsibility of the Lord Warden, who mainly represents a province on the national stage, but I would advise against it. Cézembre simply doesn't have enough active citizens to be active somewhere outside witt, we saw that with the last website. I created that one with the intention of having Cézembreans go there, but that never happened. It's still a dream of me to have Cézembre have its own functioning forum with jourtnalists to report on witt whats happening there etc, but that doesn't seem realistic for the new future. I do hope that reforming l'etats would give a small boost to local democracy, but we'll have to see I guess.