Gun registry – for Aug. 12, 2010

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: August 12, 2010

I would like to comment on your article “Gun registry battle to intensify over summer,” (WP,June 24.)Your article makes it clear that my view of a democratic country is not Canada.At the riding level, the people vote for a member of Parliament to represent their views in Parliament.We, that is the people, expect our elected member to cast their vote in Parliament to reflect our views.What has happened here with the gun registry bill is the party leader has stated that our elected MP will vote not as we have expressed our views on the bill, but instead will vote as the party leader tells them to.Is this a democratic system? No, it is not, so what do we have? I and many others believe we have a democratic vote once every five years or so. Then we have a dictatorship until the next democratic vote.Wait, how democratic is our vote? Not very, as the party leaders have the right to tell the riding associations who they will or will not have as a candidate for a federal election. How democratic is that?There is one thing that these party leaders understand and that is to vote their party out of power, so all those ridings in Western Canada who have told their MPs to vote the gun registry out and their MPs toe the party line, vote them all out.Only then will they start to listen to their constituents. Riding associations should have the right to elect whomever they feel will represent them the best in our Parliament. Our Canadian system is not democratic and must change to represent all Canadians, not just a few at the top ofthe parties, those in government and those in opposition.The parties will fight any change which diminishes their power and improves the peoples power over what happens in our Parliament.This affects all our lives so its up to us. Do we want a full democracy o rwhat we have now, one day of democracy and five years of dictatorship?

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