So we taxpayers are $10 million plus in the hole to celebrate 250 years of democracy for white male landowners. Women did not get the vote until after World War I and Aboriginals didn’t until the goddamn 60s. We all should be outraged by this celebration of shit. If this committee thinks it can convince young people to vote by concerts and pizza parties, they are stupid as well as wasteful.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2008.
This is such an interesting bitch I’m hijacking it. I’ve been meaning to post something about Democracy 250 for some time, and so finally I have, over at my Reality Bites blog:http://www.thecoast.ca/bites
I think we need more celebrations related to our history. Why the heck not? So what if women and natives weren’t voting 250 years ago? Before democracy, most people didn’t get any say in who was going to tax them. Rather than being outraged, isn’t D250 a good opportunity to teach about the entire history of democracy in Canada, including the exclusion of women and Natives until more recently? I don’t know how if $10 million is too much to spend or not, but I think it’s good that we are doing something.
miles, D250 would be good if the democracy we have today was in reality the same as the ideals that started it. and in responce to OP i agee i know that people and governments have been corrupt for ever, but to say that this is the democracy that people fought and died for? i’m sorry but i highly doubt that people fought and died so politicians would be able to give themselves pay raises at the expense of the taxpayer, or so the representatives could ignore the demands and desires of their constituents. to me D250 is a farce. it’s set up to blind the younger generations to the disgusting things happening within our own government. i for one won’t be fooled.
I have a hard time believing that anyone, anyone at all, has ever died for “democracy.”
In a world where Governments still consist of warlords, dictators and religious zealots, I think our democracy, such as it is, is still pretty good. Was it Churchill who said something like “Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others”? Sure our system has some problems, but I think it does a heck of a lot more good than harm. As our society continues to change, the political system will need to change with it. Democracy allows those adaptations to occur with much less violence and turbulence than other government systems, and we should all be thankful for that. Sure, the taxpayers may get bent over once in a while, but the great thing about the system is, if you think you can do a better job, run for office.I still don’t see the problem with holding D250 celebrations. The only real problem would be if the price is too high, but I don’t think this is something that needs to be a revenue generator either. It’s a celebration and parties cost money.