SooToday received the following letter comparing our politics to the United States.
I just want to point out to Canadians that we have a tendency to see the tremendous demise of politics in our neighbour’s country- the United States, and we choose to believe that we have no similar problems with our politics in Canada.
Down in the U.S, there is such evident hate between the Republican and the Democratic parties, that the U.S democracy has begun to be dismantled by the new bully President Trump.
But I really don’t think Canadians should be too smug, because politics in Canada is also failing the electorate. Both provincial and federal governments tend to make important decisions without discussing and voting on the issues through the elected representatives of the Canadian population. We have more than just two parties as in the U.S., but these political parties depend greatly on political donations.
Both provincially and federally, we have often seen the politicians make decisions which really only benefit the companies who have financially supported the ruling party. To me, this is a complete failure of true democracy.
I believe the average Canadian is well educated, and is aware of this system of “look after the people who have supported the party” – not necessarily the majority. We know that this is not democracy and we don’t actually approve of this practice. But when the next election comes up, we choose to ignore the failures and support the party in spite of their poor democratic principles.
Ontarians have watched the last three years of this type of performance from Doug Ford. He acknowledges the problems in our health-care system, but then he chooses where the money goes that was awarded by the federal government for national health care. He has been moving towards costly private services rather than supporting our national health system. He has underfunded the Ontario health-care system and our education system.
His version of solving our acute housing shortage in the province is to open the previously protected Greenbelt to building contractors who support him financially.
He tends to use public money for the interests of party supporters and very rich friends.
Most voters are aware of this in Ontario, but Conservative party supporters will still vote for Ford because they are Conservative. Is it not like the Republican voters in the U.S. who knowingly voted for an evil lying bully as their president?I think every voter of any party should think about the design and purpose of democracy to represent the majority, and the crucial need to support the democratic system. Voting party rather than for the real needs and the future of our province will propel our people down the very road that the United States has foolishly taken.
Don Barill
Sault Ste. Marie