The Citizen, 1992-02-19, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19,1992.
The Other Side
You have to laugh
at situations like these
Just who does
believe in
democracy?
Murray Elston, who lost the
Ontario Liberal Party leadership
race by a mere nine votes a week
ago, was speaking on television the
other night about accepting the
defeat. If you believe in democra
cy, he said, you have to accept the
will of the people, even if it is by
such a close margin.
Hmmm. I wonder just how
many of us really believe in
democracy. Take Prime Minister
Mulroney the other day: (now
never mind the joke about some
body taking the PM anyday,
please). There was a large number
of people protesting when Mr. Mul
roney went to the Peterborough city
hall to meet local officials. To
avoid the protest, he was sneaked
in through a back door and inside
he answered reporters' questions
about the demonstration by saying
the protestors were "crackpots" just
out to get media attention. For a
man who had 12 per cent popular
support, he hardly seemed to be in
a position to talk about anybody
else being on the lunatic fringe.
But it's easy to be hard on the
Prime Minister these days. The
truth is, just about everybody, from
politicians to ordinary voter, does
n't really trust democracy and
wants something to protect us from
ourselves. The Charter of Rights,
for instance, is set down on paper
so that it would be a stable body
like the Supreme Court that inter
preted what was the right of the
individual, not an elected legisla
ture that might be subject to the
tides of public opinion that might
flow one way or another.
A while back the United States
celebrated the 200th anniversary of
the Bill of Rights. Nothing illus
trates the innovation the fledgling
republic brought to the world as
much as the Bill of Rights with its
guarantee of rights of the individual
against the power of the state. It
was an unheard of step in gaining
individual freedom 200 years ago
and inspired the French Revolution
and many subsequent drives for
democracy. Yet someone recently
pointed out that, despite the fact
they list the Bill of Rights as one of
the great achievements that sets
their country ahead of other coun
tries, a majority of Americans prob
ably wouldn't support the Bill if it
was to be introduced today.
They've seen too many changes
brought about by court appeals
under the Bill of Rights that they
didn't like: the prohibition of prayer
in the schools; the right to abortion;
the abolition of the death penalty
and on and on.
The feeling is the same for
many here in Canada. The Chris-
Grand Bend
to host Snowbirds
Tom Lawson, Mayor of the Cor
poration of the Village of Grand
Bend has announced plans to bring
the 431 Air Demonstration
Squadron (Snowbirds) to perform
an airshow at Grand Bend, Tues
day, May 26th.
Major Real Turgeon of the 431
Air demonstration Squadron flew
to the Grand Bend area on Thurs
day, February 13, 1992 for a site
inspection and to finalize plans for
the Grand Bend Air show.
By Keith Roulston
tian Heritage party has in its plat
form, a pledge to repeal the Charter
of Rights because too many deci
sions are being made by the
Supreme Court, beyond the reach
of elected politicians. You can bet
their move will be opposed by
many liberal thinkers who are
afraid that exactly the gains they've
made, like abolition of abortion
laws, would bite the dust if democ
racy was allowed to take over.
But the right wing doesn't trust
democracy either. One of the
attractions of the Canada-U.S. Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) for con
servatives was that it would make it
virtually impossible for a Canadian
government to interfere in the
Canadian economy the way the
Trudeau government did- even if
that's what the voters wanted. If
tough rules were set up under the
FTA that would prevent things like
the National Energy Policy of the
Welcome To
A NEW CANADA
-Are YOU CONCERNED about the LOSS of YOUR
JOB, FARMS and INDUSTRY in Huron County?
-Are YOU SATISFIED with today's GOVERNMENT
and POLITICAL LEADERS?
-Does YOUR FUTURE matter to YOU and your
CHILDREN?
-Are YOU CONFUSED over the CONSTITUTION
ISSUE?
COME TO A PUBLIC MEETING TO HELP ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS.
LET'S BUILD A
"NEW CANADA" TOGETHER
PUBLIC MEETING
SPONSORED BY THE HURON-BRUCE
REFORM [J
PARTY OF CANADA MUk.
SOUTH HURON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL
NEW GYM - EXETER, ONTARIO
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24,1992
7:30 p.m.
GUEST SPEAKER: Pat Muttart (Ottawa)
EVERYONE WELCOME
FIND OUT WHY REFORM IS SPREADING ACROSS CANADA
Foreign Investment Review Agen
cy, then the Canadian government
would have to answer to the U.S.
government and ignore the danger
ous attitudes the people of the
country might support. Business
leaders have a great distrust of what
the public might do if it gains too
much power.
Fear of democracy has been part
of our heritage for 200 years. In
Anne Chislett's play Yankee
Notions, to be presented at the
Blyth Festival this summer, the
Family Compact that ruled Canada
at the time of the 1837 rebellion,
wanted to quash all support for
democracy after the rebellion
because they considered it a dan
gerous Yankee notion. Their fear
seems silly today when you watch
the play but it's a feeling that's still
there in a different form. And it's
all of us, not just an elite, but all of
us, that deep down have our doubts
that democracy really works.
Continued from page 5
banning a wide variety of things.
When I lived in Spain, it was tight
female bathing suits and they had a
“morality officer” parade around
the beech to make sure that this
rule was kept. However, surely one
of the most bizarre has to be a
recent edict by Singapore where,
since the beginning of the year,
chewing gum has been banned.
One reason given was that it tend
ed to jam subway and tram doors.
Another was that properly bought
up Singaporeans should be
ashamed even to have heard of
gum. You had better conform or
you can face a fine of up to $7,000
and a year in jail for importing it.
Heritage
9
Week
REFORM
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