Video...Oshawa City Council is Undermining Canada's Basic Democratic Values, and I'm Mad as Hell! How about You?

Oshawa City Council is taking one of Canada's most basic values away from voters---the meaningful vote that determines Oshawa's political leadership.



Council refused to provide adequate public information about the ward/general vote issue before the plebiscite question and still refuses to provide public information about the change to the general vote.

Aren't voters entitled to know why the plebiscite question was asked when there was not one whimper of dissatisfaction expressed with ward voting?

Aren't voters entitled to know what was wrong with the ward system when it seemed to be working so well?

Aren't voters entitled to know the benefits council expects from the general vote?

Aren't voters entitled to be reminded of Oshawa's history with the general vote when all of council came from a few of the wealthier areas leaving most of Oshawa unrepresented?

Aren't voters entitled to know that all political change under Oshawa's general vote took place through death or resignation of members?

Aren't voters entitled to know that the general vote is virtually unused in Canada and is not used in any city as large as Oshawa without the use of political parties?

Aren't voters entitled to know all these things?

So why does council continue to deny us the information?

Council's actions hardly remind us of the way governments are supposed to act in Canada.

Why are they not providing the information. Are they trying to hide something? Do they have some hidden agenda? Are they afraid that people will discuss and analyze the change and discover that the politicians themselves are the greatest beneficiaries since the general vote will guarantee them a lifetime seat on the "gravy train" of city council.

So how do you feel Oshawa being taken for a patsy and a fool?

I for one am damn mad and am doing something about it. How about you?

The greatest danger to a democratic society is that voters become lethargic and sit back and do nothing...and then it's too late.

And I don't like council trying to take away the meaningful vote that our armed forces fought for in the great wars and many people are still fighting and laying down their lives for in many regions of the world.

Oshawa is blessed with large populations of Eastern European ancestry. Didn't their forebearers come to Canada to escape the very thing that Oshawa City Council is pulling on the people?

What council is trying to do is remove one of the most basic values of our society and our way of life...the meaningful vote which determines our political leadership.

I believe in the basic values of a Democratic Canada...don't you? And I'm doing something about that too! How about you?

The politicians have to hear your feelings and your attitudes about this change. You have to email the mayor and council and express your view.

Oshawa's Totalitarian Junta

The vote in the western world is synonymous with our freedoms. It dictates that ordinary people can choose their political leaders. It dictates that voters can remove politicians who no longer have the confidence of the people. It dictates that the people have control over their destiny. It dictates that politicians are the "servants of the people". It dictates that politicians not serving the public will can be removed from office by ordinary people.

In Oshawa we will lose these basic principles of freedom if the city politicians are successful in replacing ward voting with the general or "at large" vote.

Our "Right" to cast a "meaningful" vote goes to the very heart of our way of life. Revolutions have been and are currently being fought in many sections of the world to allow ordinary people to get this right that we are about to lose. A vote without the power to change the political landscape is not a vote at all...it is simply an exercise in futility.

Many dictatorial regimes, and you can name many of these as well as I, offer the people a vote...but the voting exercise is just a sham that has not one iota of influence in changing the governments or its players. There is either only one name or party on the ballot or the count is "fixed" so that the "same old" to no one's surprise always emerges victorious.

This will be the result in Oshawa if we get the general vote. The "same old" will continue to be elected until they die or retire...and further we will have a council where all of the members eventually will come from a few of the richer areas of Oshawa leaving large sections of the city disenfranchised and unrepresented.

Under the seven general vote elections leading up to Oshawa winning ward elections in 1985, 109 total council positions were contested. Not one of those 109 seats was won by any citizen residing south of King Street. Eight of Fifteen Council Members came from one ward and an additional three members came from one polling subdivision of about 100 houses at the end of Regent Drive in the then Ward Three. This was a council that was not all all representative of the people of Oshawa.

Those general vote councils did little to provide any leadership for Oshawa. No member was interested in solving neighbourhood problems worth 10 or 12 votes because this was insignificant when a total of 20,000 to 25,000 votes were required for election. Therefore there was no one you could call to work on your community problem. Promoting their name was the only thing important to politicians so that they would argue, backbite, bitch, bicker and grandstand fighting for press. They were reluctant to support good ideas of fellow council members because they were all competitors for city-wide votes and so no politician wanted to give another member any press. The result, stagnation in Oshawa. Because council members were well-known, they were always victorious and so only one member lost lost his seat at the polls when the perpetually top polling local councillor, Cy Elsey, ran Regionally and defeated perpetually lowest polling regional councillor, John McLaughlin. All other change took place through death or resignation of members.

Experience is that the general vote produces a "permanent ruling class" where the public vote doesn't count...sounds almost like a absolute totalitarian junta of despots in some third world country, doesn't it?

We are about to lose what many in the world give their life to preserve.

Don't let it happen here, Oshawa!