north shore news

______MAIWLBOx
MP unafraid of citizens

Dear Editor:

It would appear that Noe!
Wright has fallen victim ro the
myths about direct democracy
which have been so successfully
drummed into our brains by
the power-hungry, old-line
politicians of the past. His col-
umn of June 20, “Direct
democracy not that simple,”
raised all of the usual objections
put forward by those uld-line
politicians — that it would cost
too much, that it would hold
up the business of the govern-
ment, that difficult: decisions
would never be made, and that
there is no point in clecting
representatives if we don’t trust
them to make the governing
decisions for us. In fact, anyone
who has studied direct demne-
racy around the world can tes-
tify there is no convincing evi-
dence to support these claims.

Citizen initiated referen-
dums, for example, have
proven time and time again, all
around the world, to be the
single best way to get decisions
made when elected representa-
tives have clearly shown them-
selves to be incapable of doing
what needed to be done.
Recent results trom referen-
cums in Oregon and California
illustrate the point. Voters have
put a stop to wastetul govern-
ment spending, authorized the
medical use of marijuana, intro-
duced tough new punishments
for criminals, and ended the
altirmative action programs
which were dividing their suci-
ety. On all of these issues, the
elected representatives had

Many thanks to those of you who made donations to Vancouver's first ever

| Run/WalW/Stroll for Prostate Cancer Research on Father's Day, either by sponsor-
ing my walk, or through your direct participation. Almost $30,000 was raised in
plecges on the day, and approximately 200 people took part in the event, despite

i the rain. Thank you too, to the companies which so generously supplied food and
| beverages, along with free advertising and other supplies. Watch for an even big-

debated and argued for years,
but had failed to move from
the stanis quo.

In terms of cost and voter
participation, it is interesting to
note that a referendum on the
Toronto Megacity Project,
which was held about three
years ago in North York, cost
less than one sixth of the cost of
a normal municipal election,
yet had almost three times the
voter turnout for a municipal
election. This impressive per-
formance was due mainly to
the use of touch-tone tele-
phone voting technology, in
five different languages, mak-
ing it an extremely convenient
and accessible event for the
voters. Despite the success of
such technology though, there
has been no great avalanche of
referendums showering down
on the residents of North York,
just as there has been no such
avalanche in) Saskatchewan,
which has had municipal reter-
endum legislation on the books
for decades. Nor has the sky

i CAEN -
PARK ROYAL SOUTH

fallen in New Zealand, where
others have had the right to ini-
tiate referendums, with as lite
as 2% of the voters signing a
petition, since 1993. Just the
presence of the tools of direct
democracy, it seems, is sufti-
cient to encourage the politi-
cians to be more conscious of
the will of the voters.

In this information age,
there is absolutely no justifica-
tion for a representative to take
the position that his or her
judgement must take prece-
dence over the will of the vot-
ers, and each one of us who is
paid from the public purse to
represent others in a legislature
should, in my opinion, keep in
mind exactly who he or she was
elected to serve. I am personal-
ly, complctely unafraid of direct
democracy, and look forward
to the day when a forward-
thinking council gives us a citi-
zen-initiated referendum faw in
North Vancouver.

Ted White, MP
North Vancouver

advertorial. June 30/1999

FATHER’S DAY

ger and better event next year.

CANADA DAY

With the festivities ready to begin tomorrow, | would like to take this opportu-
nity to wish you all a Happy Canada Day. If you have never joined in the celebra-
tion and cake cutting at Waterfront Park in North Vancouver, why not try to be |
there this year. Even though most of us feel that our taxes are too high, our gov-
ernments ere tco big, and there are lots of other things we need to fix in terms of
the way our governments operate, on balance Canada is a pretty good country in
which to live. July 1st is a time to enjoy wnat we have as a nation.

IMPORTANT NOTE

The Parliament of Canada went into summer recess on June 11th. As
a result, and perhaps to your relief, there will be a deficit of parliamen-
tary ews to share with you over the next few months. I am therefore dis-
continuing these Wednesday reports until the Liberals announce the start
of a new Parliamentary session, probably towards the end of September.

“Ted-Whit

Wednesday, June 30, 1999 — North Shore News - 9

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