in a lamentable trend.
Via nottawa, here’s a link to Jim Travers’ excellent column on the decline of democratic institutions in Canada.
Regular readers of these humble e-scribbles will know that the local legislature and the government which has taken complete control of it in every respect is way ahead of the crowd in eroding the function of democratic institutions.
Everything Jim says about Ottawa applies equally in St. John’s.
The phenomenon is not a partisan one. The current Conservative crowds in Ottawa and St. John’s have merely taken to the whole trend started under respectively – Chretien and Tobin - with an unnatural lust.
The root of the problem is easy to identify.
The cure, as Jim lays it out, is the same thing:
If war is too serious to leave to generals, then surely democracy is too important to delegate to politicians.
We – the voters – let the politicians carry on the way they do.
We - the voters – can change things.
You just gotta wanna.
-srbp-