Revolutionary Legislative Mandates if Grant Rigby elected MLA? or MP?

Democratic, egalitarian, libertarian, scientific.

September 20, 2025

The mandates would be to introduce these proposals for formal debate and improvement and vote by the Legislature of Manitoba or the Parliament of Canada. Promptly following election, a survey of constituents would request detailed critique and advice on each item.

Mandates #1-27 are the inventions and this is copyright of Grant Rigby. Political parties are welcome to adopt these ideas, if attributed and discussed with me to further understand and develop concepts.

1. Free Speech Truthful Rebuttal: Enable professional rebuttal to enhance free speech and truthful journalism, by requiring print, broadcasting and other public communications media, whether public or private owned, to provide equal space and position and duration and time of day and dissemination, free for the purpose of information correction by professional journalists chosen by a national association of professional journalists graduate of Canadian university journalism schools, in response to any complaint the association deems valid and worthy. Exempt fundamental beliefs of enduring religions as defined by their central leadership if complying with hate speech law.

2. Toddlers' Parents' Democracy: Empower parents of toddlers to govern the public daycare system, via annually electing Daycare Trustees from among themselves to comprise provincial Boards of Daycare to immediately advise governments and within two years evolve into full managerial authority.

3. Students' Parents' Democracy: Empower parents of students to elect new Education Trustees from among themselves, to comprise a provincial Board of Education which shall have authority over Manitoba's public schools and curriculum, and will endure if a government takes over funding and thus ends the local school boards who currently assess school taxes. (This guards education from being taken over by narrow minded interests such as we see in parts of the US and indications of the threat in Canada. All a clique needs to do now is coordinate the largest mob to vote at party leadership contests to determine the next premier who could then implement a doctrine, for example the denial of science.)

4. Senior's Children's Democracy: Empower children of seniors needing homecare services to govern the public homecare system, via electing Homecare Trustees from among themselves to comprise provincial Boards of Homecare having full managerial authority.

5. Medical Providers' Democracy: Invite nurses, doctors and hospital administrators to elect new representatives solely tasked as a joint group to recommend actions to government for continuous improvements to health care efficiency and outcomes, (because they know better than MLA's).

6. Libertarian Health Services: Welcome complementary not-for-profit health care cooperatives that might form to offer services supplementing governments' health services.

7. Civil Service Incentive: Reward public service in the public's best interest, by tying the public service wage scale to vary with the median income of all Manitobans aged 30 to 60.

8. Civil Servants' Democracy: Democratize crown corps and civil service via 5yr+ staff, who know peers well, electing CEOs and Assistant Deputy Ministers via ranked secret ballots. Naive Ministers still set objectives and retain operational and expenditures veto.

9. Egalitarian Small Business Finance: Create "The Profession of Business Lender" with a code of ethics requiring service in the best interest of the client, and to anyone providing security regardless of loan size. Amend "The Credit Unions Act", and Canada's "Bank Act", to require Professional Business Lenders as staff overseeing loans to small business. And require of all financial institutions who accept deposits from the public that a minimum percentage of deposits be lent to small businesses. Legislate a "Small Business Lending Act" prohibiting bullying spousal guarantees if loan is 150% secured by real estate, and to specify rules for non-adversarial low stress restructuring of secured debt. (Search the internet for "Western Producer Rigby" to read my Oct 16, 2024 published "Did Banks and FCC Slow Productivity Growth" article and the comments. Businesses would be able to choose climate responsible options, even if lowering cash profitability relative to competitors, without risk of loosing their operating finance from bankers due to being less profitable than others in the industry as currently happens now because business lending is not now a formal honourable profession serving clients' needs. Grandma with an old house in a poor part of a city, would be welcomed by bankers to provide it as security for a tools loan for her granddaughter's venture, just as teachers would be welcomed to access capital to outbid megafarms for a quarter section then lease it to employed mechanics and agronomists who would be welcomed to borrow to buy and repair old equipment and buy inputs to own a crop they thresh after work, thus creating more new business owners. Lending now serves firstly the interests of bank executives, and serves fewer small business clients to reduce bank administrative costs, because the Bank Act bestows great privilege on financial institutions while requiring no service performance, and attracts psychopaths towards positions of power over business owners. Because governments and existing businesses cannot offer enough jobs for full employment, I believe all citizens deserve the right of access to capital if security is provided, to create new livelihoods and via the inventive zeal of ownership rapidly grow Canada's productivity.)

10. Workers' Democracy: Reduce the income tax rate for companies that are worker controlled, approximating the benefit for us all of thereby ending labour strikes and reducing wealth disparity and its consequent gov costs for policing and social services costs. (Foreign corporate-controlled vertically integrated retailers and livestock farms, as examples, would be incentivized to transform into foreign-financed worker-controlled enterprises that likely then also perform better due to governance that is more knowledgeable, workers' profit incentivized, and local community supportive.)

11. Wealth funds the defense of wealth: Fund Canadian Forces, while also reducing the tax rate on earned income, via a deferable wealth tax on net worth exceeding for example 40 years of minimum wages (excluding one's home), assessed as deemed income as though earning at or below the Bank of Canada interest rate. Possibly adjust the wealth tax by age, peaking the net worth exempt from the wealth tax at age 65. This wealth tax can fund strong defense against risk of destructive thievery of property and wealth by the Kremlin (eg. its theft of fertile farmlands and The Donbas mines) and similar potential aggressors. Having this wealth taxation capability legislated means that Canada could immediately borrow large funds to hire USA defense of Canada because banks would know Canada can raise the funds to pay it back. And potential thieves be thereby deterred.

12. Egalitarian Essential Services: Share a portion of the property taxes from industrial and office properties in high tax base regions, with municipalities and first nations that have insufficient per capita tax bases to adequately fund basic essential services such as drinking water, sanitation, fire protection, policing. (All children are deserving regardless of where born. Also strengthens Canada's sovereignty among its remote poor populations.)

13. Drainage Funding: Exempt lands in perennial vegetation from the portion of property taxes used for public water drainage costs, because they retain water same since ice age. Assess grain crop lands at half the full drainage tax rate assessed on barren lands.

14. Effective GHG Sequestration via Mycorrhizae: Carbon sequestration incentives, whether from government or from market premiums, must evolve with the latest comprehensive scientific research. Science currently indicates that soil mycorrhizae's glomalins are resistant to decay by microbes and thus an enduring form of carbon sequestration, but not crop straw and roots which rapidly decompose back to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (references https://www.rigbyorchards.com/carbon_sequestration.html). Growing new mycorrhizae adding more glomalins is thus the goal. (This means that Agriculture Canada's HOLOS model (not written by AgCan's soil microbiologists) for estimating carbon sequestration resulting from various practices is flawed because it considers crop residues to be positive, despite AgCan's soil microbiologists having determined that nearly all carbon from crop residues is decomposed back to carbon dioxide within a few years.)

15. Political Science to Prevent Wars: Enlist political scientists here to imagine and design appropriate federal democracies complete with comprehensive laws written in their languages, building on Canada's French-English and Nunavut successes, to prevent conflict in a future federation of Israel-Palestine, and of China-Taiwan, and for The Donbas jointly by Ukraine-Russia, and for Greenland with its neighbours. (Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird wrote back at length but did not adopt my suggestion in 2013 to persuade the young Ukraine democracy to cease central governance over language rights etc. from Kiev and allow The Donbas region to have independent authority similar to the success of Quebec within Canada, to thereby limit the potential for the Kremlin to incite discontent. We could have then prevented that war, and the broadened war possibly coming to us.)

16. Libertarian Local Defense: Weapons laws to evolve as advised jointly by all municipal-appointed police forces, who face and best understand the risks and weapons, with city/rural/occupation variation. Government to consider allowing private ownership of prohibited weapons for defense of human rights and property, if approved by the Canadian Forces, if the owner relinquishes all rights to any use or control of the weapon, if not stored near any home but rather secretly and securely as authorized by the provincial government, and if available for usage by Canadian Forces or as they may delegate to the Reserves or police forces. (This would function to deter invasion such as by the January 6 mob who attacked the US capital who would fear our unknown defense weaponry, and provide local immediate defense capability for example against drones, supplementing federal investments in Cdn Forces.)

17. Rural Public and Worker Health: Correct the 1990's omission in the Manure Regulations of any prohibition of toxic air pollution, to prevent the mental, neurotoxic and immunosuppressive hazards of hydrogen sulfide gas fermented in the warm swine lagoons of summer-autumn. (Liquid manure can be subsurface banded into cover crops or between rows of corn, weekly thru the summer.)

18. Boreal Wildfires Prevention: Support plant and ecology scientists to develop options for advancing species of vegetation that are less susceptible to high heat intensity wildfires, to help protect vulnerable communities and the vast carbon storage in peat moss. Use grazing livestock to control vegetation, replicating ecology of 600 years ago.

19. Equitable GHG Taxation: Reduce income tax rates for companies reporting lower greenhouse gas emissions per employee (eg. their scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions including commuting to work), to correlate with their relatively lower responsibility for future government costs for climate warming induced emergencies, property losses, refugees and defense. (Large companies who contribute to the higher costs facing governments via decisions to cause GHG would be required to pay higher income tax rates than companies who reduce their GHG to nil.)

20. GHG Policy vs USA: Exempt exports to USA from the industrial GHG Output-Based Pricing System, if validated will not be consumed outside of the USA, to keep Cdn manufacturers competitive.

21. Petroleum Industry Endurance: Avert catastrophic collapse of our petroleum industry by stimulating manufacturing of non-toxic durable products (such as digitally printed houses), instead of GHG-emitting burnable products, possibly via rebates paid to durables funded from wholesale levies on the petroleum destined for GHG, with neither tax to nor subsidy from governments.

22. A GHG-free North: Exemplify new boreal and tundra developments, such as Port Nelson, as GreenHouse Gas and Flamable Fuels Free test markets for GHG-free energy services with no explosive fire hazard.

23. Healthy Fast Food: Remove Retail Sales Tax from snack foods having nutrition labels reporting low sugar with high fibre or protein content (as advised by consultation with nutrition and medical scientists), to reduce health care costs.

24. Egalitarian Libertarian Genderism: Degenderize citizenship, because Canada did, Iran and Taliban still do, use gender identity to deny women of freedom and voting, and minority genders of protection from hate. Gov and schools can cease gender prefixes, and possibly use the word "e" instead of "she or he", and "ha" for "her or him", because gender is irrelevant distraction from the content of a communication. Possibly address by initials anyone who requests to not use a name for any reason. Evolve school gender policies via parents' elected provincial education trustees board, independent of any political party.

25. Canada Post Residential Letter Pickup Profits: Mandate letter pickup by our walking postwen, at twice the standard postage rate (apply two stamps). Allow until after Christmas 2026 for communities to send letters from home and thereby fund the extra costs of home mail delivery service. (Many who are aged, disabled, poor or without a car have difficulty going out to mail a letter. Reinvigorates sending greeting cards, love letters, home-based business letters. Longhand writing and artistic drawing skills might resurge as a cultural phenomena, old friends reconnect, and Canada Post become profitable.)

26. Legitimate Premier and Prime Minister Elections: If a Premier or Prime Minister resigns during midterm, then all MLAs or MPs, by virtue of the authority vested only in them by citizen voters, shall select a legitimate new Premier or Prime Minister, via secret preference-ranked voting with all MLAs or MPs on the ballot. (Because a clique of unelected persons in political parties have no legitimate right to select our prime rulers.)

27. Advancement from Local Politics: Allow all serving politicians such as councilors and mayors, excepting cabinet ministers, to be candidates in provincial and federal elections without needing to first resign their current positions. Also guarantee all who have been elected the right to normal employment in the civil service following defeat. (Politics as a career is currently of too high a risk to the security of family income, dissuading many who lack wealth from offering to be candidates, and when replaced they have much experience and desire to contribute further.)

28. True Majoritarian Democracy: Enact Preference Ranked Ballot Voting for all levels of government … thus if your first choice gets the least votes then your second choice gets counted, until a candidate has >50%. This ensures all legislators are legitimate by having received endorsement by >50% of voters. (This would also facilitate non-partisan candidates participating, or more than one of the same party affiliation, without risk of splitting the majority's philosophical vote, and thereby dramatically improve the competency pool for our legislators. Extraordinary persons could run, for example leaders of public institutions and large businesses and desperate charities etc. could be candidates without first joining parties which in their positions must be avoided. Instead, now only persons who are essentially non-consequential in their current jobs are free to become candidates, and then only after devoting years to sucking up to the leaders of major parties via years of partisan office or working on campaigns. I suggest this renders 99% of our best qualified ineligible to be candidates. The few who do run may be well trained technicians in politics, or good service desk operators, but not necessarily of proven imaginative skill for solving problems, deep understanding of any scientific discipline, conviction for social improvement, etc, nor generally seem to seek any serious objectives.)


I could serve, to introduce Legislations and Resolutions to achieve these mandates. If elected for these mandates, then the other MLA's ought not impede the will of the voters, (but if half of them realize that a mandate idea is ridiculous then of course it will not pass!).

Our family farm is near the Pembina in view of Turtle Mountain. No plumbing in house when young, chore horses, cattle, cream, chickens, eggs, pigs, grain crops, then a first modern hog barn. UW Arts, coal mining, UM B.Sc.Ag, grain trade head office, M.Sc.Food. Businesses: efficient chemical grain farming, then organic reversing soil salination and now developing a carbon sequestering agronomy, 16 acre berry growing and processing new products and wine marketing (search "Rigby Orchards"). My wife's career in canola breeding at U.Manitoba. Kids' summers at our farm and now have professions.

If nominated as a candidate then I would promptly deliver to each municipal office my ink signed letter of advance resignation as your MLA, to be effective upon receipt by the Speaker of the Legislature of letters demanding my resignation signed by 2/3rds of your local elected municipal councilors and school board trustees, for any stated reasons. This guarantees that I remain alert, responsible and try to be wise.

I would establish a formal dialogue with all municipal councils and request them to direct my work for projects they decide by consensus should receive provincial support, such as health care, sport facilities, roads, drinking water, etc, because councilors and staff know better than any MLA could. This formal dialogue should endure past my term.

I would similarly offer the elected student bodies of Brandon University and Assiniboine College the opportunity to help me serve and invite public input, critique bills and imagine useful new legislation most relevant to next generations.

I will not ask anyone individually for support, but if citizens are interested in the above ideas, then nomination pages can be printed from: https://www.electionsmanitoba.ca/downloads/chklist_nomination_eng.pdf

I have been advancing these concepts to MLAs and MPs for years, but no progress. It seems that only what a Premier or Prime Minister has already thought about becomes legislation.

But clear mandates for a winning candidate would be seen as the will of the people, that skilled politicians would adopt as their own and their government best legislate to be competitive in the next election.

I request your critiques/improvements/additions to the proposed mandates. Also request your social e chat, sharing and direct talk to build support for these new concepts for our evolving enduring democracy.

Thanks,
Grant Rigby   grant.rigby.mb(at)outlook.com www.grantrigby.ca