If you surveyed 10 citizens on any main street in any city in Canada, it is likely that you would find seven or eight that would answer YES if you asked them if our parliamentary system was dysfunctional. Too many of us this is self evident: From declining voter turnout to electing ineffective parliamentarians of all partisan stripes to the country club federalism that now emanates from Premiers' offices and the PMO, our body politic is replete with anecdotes and examples that have understandably driven Canadians away from the democratic process.

And if there is one group that has captured this in spades and then some, it is Toronto-based Stornoway productions and their work on the Underground Royal Commission (URC). It is an endeavour which has spawned 16 books, 14 hours of digital television (also available on VHS) programming and a website, www.theurc.com. And make sure you surf by theurc.com as opposed to simply urc.com which will get you to Pennsylvania based United Refining Company and this site is all about oil as opposed to the crisis in Canadian democracy.

When I think of royal commissions I think of the Carter Commission on Taxation from 1966 which recommended the family be the base unit of taxation - a recommendation ignored to this day by the Government of Canada. Or the Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies in the late 1980s that sounded the alarm bell on the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research and assisted human reproduction that required parliamentary intervention. FYI, these issues are now just getting a hearing in the corridors of power a decade later even though the technology involved is in its third and fourth generation iterations.

Even some of the better recommendations in the Romanow Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care (read: Sustainability as a sixth principle in the Canada Health Act) have been ignored. Indeed this is common thread running through successive royal commissions: Political bravado leading to expensive and encompassing national investigations leading to well research, thought provoking, forest-felling volumes of reports which lead to inaction, dust collection and basically nothing by way of concrete public policy changes.

But the underground royal commission should not be ignored. This series of books, videos and discussion forums (all of which have been turned into university level courses) is the clarion call for reform of our institutions. And if his inevitableness, Paul Martin, is serious about fixing Parliament, he should take a few hours at his famed "farm" in the Eastern Townships to view the last video in the URC series entitled Does Your Vote Count?

In fact Mr. Martin actually owes me a visit to the farm and I would be more than willing to devote a Saturday from one of my in-law weekends on the south shore and make the trip from Drummondville to Brome and bring him a copy of this video. (Memo to Mr. Martin's scheduling shop - give me a call, you know where to find me, I'll make the time.)

So it was ironic that this video was screened earlier this week, Tuesday morning to be precise, to a crowd of politicos and media types at the Chateau Laurier along with a scathing speech by former Prime Minister John Turner on the very same day that Mr. Martin invited his Liberal caucus colleagues to a pizza and beer gabfest (read: Unofficial caucus meeting) in Centre Block that evening.

Does Your Vote Count? paints an ugly but realistic picture of our House of Commons which has been neutered and rendered more and more impotent as the decades have passed. For example, closure, as a means of ending debate early and shutting down the opposition so the government can ram legislation into law has been employed more times in the last quarter century than the previous 113 years of our history as a nation by a ratio of six to one.

As for Mr. Turner's remarks he rightly noted that Cabinet and cabinet solidarity really determines whether a government succeeds or fails. Indeed, he repeated the fact, not assertion of opinion, but let's be clear, a fact, that we are living under an "elected dictatorship." And to be fair, Mr. Turner has said this for over four decades … even before I was a twinkle in my father's eye and when John F. Kennedy was still the President of the United States.

As for the role of MP as legislator and political entrepreneur, such examples are truly exceptions to the rule. Excessive party discipline, whipped votes on almost every issue including private member's bills, a powerful and technically armed civil service and a media-driven ‘cult of personality and leadership' have all unconsciously yet conveniently conspired to render MPs almost powerless.

Yet there is hope.

Backbenchers from all parties are fighting back and working together in parliamentary committees and defying their party leadership when issues of policy and process trump partisanship. And the expectations around Paul Martin's promises of reform and empowerment have now taken on a life of their own. The proverbial reform train has left the station and its destination can not be determined by an overbearing PMO.

Hopefully, the next federal election - regardless of the Liberal lead in the polls or if the right has united or not or if the NDP has any traction beyond its narrow base - will offer up candidates who present themselves and their order of priorities determining their elected conduct as follows: First they will be loyal to their own values, moral compass and conscience; second they will serve the will of their constituents; and finally, if these two criteria are satisfied and congruent, then and only then will they will also vote and align themselves with the party platform on which they were elected.

Along with Mr. Martin, aspiring MPs would be wise to visit the URC web site and get a copy of John Turner's remarks from this past Tuesday … both should be required reading and study for returning and future parliamentarians.