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The Rural Voice, 2000-11, Page 12"Our experience assures lower cost water wells" 100 YEARS' EXPERIENCE Member of Canadian and Ontario Water Well Associations • Farm • Industrial • Suburban • Municipal Licensed by the Ministry of the Environment .r- ,I ;I I� 1111111► •' • DAVIDSON WELL DRILLING LTD. WINGHAM Serving Ontario Since 1900 519-357-1960 WINGHAM 519-664-1424 WATERLOO FARM & MUNICIPAL DRAINAGE Specializing In: • Farrn & Municipal Drainage • Clay & Plastic The Installations • Backhoe & Dozer Service • Septic System Installations For Quality, Experience, & Service cal/: • Wayne Cook (519) 236-7390 R.R.2 Zurich, Ont. NOM 2T0 PARKER PARKER L I M ITE D www.hay.net/-drainage 8 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston Making people spectators, not participants Municipal elections will be held this fall and in my neighbourhood. as in many others across Ontario, when it's all over there will be far fewer local politicians than in the past. This, in the view of our provincial government, is a good thing. Often in the past when a municipal amalgamation was announced, the government would send out a press release boasting that the number of politicians had been slashed. Now much as it's inviting to bash politicians, to me this seems com- pletely. ludicrous. What we are celebrating. in cutt ng the number of politicians, is a reduction in participation in our communities. We have made it easier and easier for people to sit back, do nothing, and blame everybody else for the world going to hell in a handbasket. That does not seem like progress to me. In the past, everybody was expected to contribute to their local community. When I was a child, our local school board still functioned even though our one -room school had been closed and we were bussed to town. My father, a shy man who never put himself forward, still served a term on that board, as did most of the neighbours at one time or another. Everybody knew who the local trustees were and could talk to them at church or across the line fence. The neighbourhood schools were eventually closed in favour of a township -wide school. That could be called progress because the school had more resources to offer children, even if the intimate local connection was lost. But then township boards were forced to dissolve in favour of county boards, and education moved further from the people. More recent- ly two or more boards were amal- gamated, further reducing the number of trustees. Today there are just nine trustees serving two counties and, though. I'm in the media and close to the issue, I'd be hard pressed to name the trustee who represents me. Now the same process is beginning in municipal politics. The township reeve used to live down the road from me. Now the head of council will be in a nearby town and I doubt I'll ever meet him or her. In our local municipality there will be only 40 per cent of the people working for their community that there used to be. Last month I also attended the round of annual meetings of the local Federations of Agriculture. I'm showing my age if I say that it was once surprising if there wasn't an election for every post. Now it's shocking if there is. Too many people are willing to sit back and let somebody else take responsibility. Of course they're still ready to criticize for everything being done wrong. So the reduction of councillors and trustees is, in a way, recognizing a trend on the part of people to sit back and let others do the work. And yet it's surprising that this, of all governments, should be encouraging this direction. Premier Harris stands for reducing the role of government, yet he's helping turn more of government over to bureaucrats instead of local politicians who are, despite their nominal pay, essentially volunteers. This is a government that wants people to take personal responsibility, yet it's encouraging fewer people to step forward and take responsibility for their local community. And in doing so, the very structure of our country is shifting. Several years ago Elbert Vandonkersgoed spoke about the subtle change in our society brought about by fewer people being self- employed and more people being employees. The same kind of evolution will take place if fewer people are participants in their community and more are spectators. I think we'll live to regret this lack of faith in democracy.0 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice. He lives near Blyth, ON.