I am sure that you are very aware of the feelings of many of the
population with respect to the political system. I heard an elderly
man use the following expression, ‘same shit different
pile’. Recently in an election in eastern Canada they
had a 65% turnout and it was suggested that the normal turnout was
75%. That means that 35% of the people simply did not care enough
to vote, and that did not include those that were forced to vote
for the best of the worst.
The important question is what happened to that additional 10%?
The jokes run rampant on talk shows, but in reality the political
system is reflective of corruption and a total lack of respect for
the public. Words like honesty and integrity are just words and are
used at election time. Governments make statements but when it time
to deliver on these promises you find yourself facing new laws. The
disabled people of this province found that out very quickly with
reforms that somehow replaced ‘assured
lifetime’ designations.
The question is why? Democracy is suppose to consider the
viewpoints of all the people in a society. Let’s
suppose that in an election we have a rapist, a child molester, and
a murder running for office. By present standards you are asking
the electorate to elect one of these people to run you life. An
intelligent person would make an intelligent choice and elect
‘none of the above’. This however is not
offered as an option. What we have is an entrenched system for
elections without consideration for the feelings of the electorate.
It’s time to ask the many that do not participate in
elections if they simply are not voting for a reason or if they are
not voting because they do not wish to have their lives dictated to
by people that promise you what you want to hear when they are
attempting to be elected but quickly forget one day after they are
elected.
In the last election I voted Liberal, yes it turned out to be a
mistake, but I believed that the person in question was what he
said he was, I had no reason to doubt him. However today I would
wish to vote for ‘none of the above’.
However I will be denied that right because of this entrenched
system. They have elections in communist countries, the problem is
only a small percentage of the people belong to the party but it is
democracy in some aspects. Well, 35% of the populace is a large
enough percentage for your reforms to consider. How many people
would vote for ‘none of the above’? I
really have no idea, but I know one thing it would force the
political parties to become far more accountable to the people that
they are suppose to serve.
In the real world people work for governments, governments no
longer work for people. That’s why we have a tax free
day. In the United States there is a very strong movement for a
concept called recall. One quote is ‘The
politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing’. Yes
they are failing because they do not have to be accountable by
today’s standards because its taken for granted that
you have to elect a ‘politician’ to run
your life. He said ‘We just see things
declining and declining and declining. ... California now is being
run by special interests. We have to stop that’. Yes,
special interest groups are the ones that run government we can see
that and that is in British Columbia as well as California. Do not
be afraid to serve the people of the Province of British Columbia.
I wish to see ‘None of the above’ on the
ballots because I think its my democratic right to be represented
by a person that knows that he or she is accountable, and the
electorate can say to these enshrined politicians that they are
indeed expendable. Its time to ask the voters if they really
support the political system and trust me, ‘none of the
above’ would send a very clear message to the
politicians of this province.
Thank you
Wes Beliveau
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