Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
Perhaps so, however it at least then requires an open, honest discussion grounded in reality about expectations rather than the contradictory hopes and dreams of various people who agree on a single narrow point.
Especially if the majority are, on some level, likely to be disappointed with some or all of the outcome.
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I think that would be extremely hard to achieve in our political system. Referendums are still a novelty in our constitution. Even their implementation crashes headlong into the whole concept of parliamentary sovereignty. An open, honest discussion grounded in reality about expectations might work in the Swiss model where there are more referendums than you can shake a stick at, on narrow issues, all the time. But we have only attempted to use them on major constitutional questions that are highly contentious by nature.