Protecting the Ideals of Remembrance Day

I was struck this morning with the drama and emotions and ideas presented in a Toronto Star Article, How can we forget that sacrifice.

A WWII veteran recounts his war experience describing first hand observations of his war experiences...the sights, the sounds, the smells, the terror, and the raw emotions of war. And what it was like to see your comrades fall beside you.



Throughout our nation, we have to protect the spirit of what our heroes were trying to preserve for the world.

And maybe these efforts and sacrifices were all for nought in Oshawa.

Our soldiers were fighting to liberate the people and preserve their freedoms...and in the free world the meaningful vote that has power to determine political leadership is the icon of all of this.

The "real" and "meaningful" vote is the very essence of a democracy.

And on this Remembrance Day, not only should we remember our heroes, but we should remember what they were fighting for--the democratic vote that determines political destiny.



Unfortunately, with Oshawa City Council's return to the General Vote, we will lose all of this.

Oshawa's history with the General Vote demonstrates that politicians could not be defeated so voting was an exercise in futility. And like non-democratic systems everywhere, all political power became centralized to a few...and in Oshawa under the General Vote, all political power became centralized in a few of the richer areas leaving vast areas of the city unrepresented, disenfranchised...and forgotten!



The devastating and un-Canadian effects of the General Vote in Oshawa cited above is not speculation. It is Oshawa's history!

Let us not forget this plea, "If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep though poppies grow in Flander's Fields."