Letter to the Editor: Does democracy really work?

There seems to be concerns nowadays about the threat to democracy in democratically aligned countries. Why are large segments of the population protesting and even in some cases using violence against their democratically elected government. “Rep by Pop” and “Majority Rules “ seems a fair way of governing. But is it? In my opinion there are cases where democracy works and cases where it does not. I think the success of democratically made decisions depends largely on the size and area affected by that decision. A good example of this is when the city of Calgary voted to accept or reject the fluoridation of their water supply. Hear you had people of a set area making a decision which affected them all equally. To me that sounded like a fair way to resolve the question.

On the other hand when you consider an area the size of Canada and the large variation in its population it’s obvious that the lesser populated areas will receive less consideration when important decisions are being made. This is evident from the staunch defence of the dairy industry in NAFTA negotiations to the perpetuation of the. “Equalization “ formula which sees billions of dollars transferred from the west to the two big eastern provinces. Of course politicians will say that the money first goes to Ottawa and then is distributed according to the formula but this is just a matter of semantics.

Will this situation ever change? As long as 90% of elections are decided before polls open in the west the answer is no. In fact this was so obvious that a number of years ago it was decided not to show the election results until the polls were closed across Canada as it was felt western voters would lose interest in casting their ballots knowing the election was already settled.

So what is the solution to this obvious inequality? I believe that once again the area or size and the population in that area should have greater say in decisions that affect them. This would mean greater power given to the individual provinces and less power to the central government so that certain areas are not treated more “equally” than others.

Presently the leadership of the federal conservative party is being debated. It is interesting to note that many of the candidates are recognizing the obvious presence of Western alienation. They are all aware that it exists but what will they do about it. Are their speeches sincere or is it just lip service? If the status quo continues as I’m sure it will, their concerns Will soon be swept aside and we’ll go back to playing the same old game.

Don Bamber
Oyen, AB