“We the people tell government what to do…it doesn’t tell us. We the people are the driver, the government is the car, and we decide where it should go, by what route and how fast.”
Those were the words of Ronald Reagan on January 11, 1989 as he delivered his farewell address to the United States of America. ‘We the people’ were the three little words Reagan used to reverse the course of government throughout his eight years as president.
President Reagan was right, and the preservation of freedom is why government exists, period.
However, freedom is a fundamental value of democracy but today democracy is in peril.
Over the past 10 years, Canada and all Western countries have seen marked changes in the nature of the world order. Two trends are particularly worrisome and have contributed to “democratic backsliding.”
We see elected governments incrementally eroding democratic institutions, rules, and what we know as social norms. Secondly, there are people in power, and leaders, who are hiding non-democratic practices behind democratic institutions.
These leaders are focussed on gaining or retaining power but are undermining democracy using various strategies, such as buying votes and eliminating or silencing political opposition.
You might be thinking, “Sure, that’s happening around the world but not in our neck of the woods.” Make no mistake—it’s happening at every level of Canadian government including Haldimand-Norfolk.
In 2024, I wrote a few newspaper columns citing examples of democratic erosion in the Ontario Legislature. With a quick scan, you’ll find numerous examples across Ontario such as school board trustees and municipal councillors being silenced.
On December 29, the United States’ 39th President Jimmy Carter passed away. Like many leaders, Carter left us with much to ponder through the written word. On January 5, 2022, he penned a piece for the New York Times titled: I Fear for our Democracy.
In this piece, Carter said, “For American democracy to endure, we must demand that our leaders and candidates uphold the ideals of freedom and adhere to high standards of conduct.”
While I cannot agree with all his politics, I can wholeheartedly stand by this statement, and I am proud to be working with a handful of others across the country who believe the same.
We must continue to stand up, to ask questions, to demand accountability, because what we are witnessing is what ensues when powerful business interests have too much sway over government decisions whether it is municipally, provincially, or federally. Sadly, government is not working for you.
We need Reagan’s great rediscovery of the 1980s where, “Low and behold, the moral way of government is the practical way of government: democracy, the profoundly good, is also the profoundly productive.”
Together, we can restore democracy and protect our freedoms. It won’t be easy because leaders and special interests have their people in place to shut us down – they fear monger, and they try to convince voters that opposition should not exist.
I remind you that without opposition there is not accountability, and there is no protection of public interest.
These same folk also tell others that the tough questions I ask on your behalf are somehow hurting us. I ask if these people believe in a dictatorship.
“We the people are free. The future should always be ours.”
It’s time government let us get in the driver’s seat and take the wheel.