WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16.1987. PA(V 7. 'PAGE SEVEN THE ONTARIO ELECTION Was Democracy Served? Last Thursday we exercised our democratic rights and duties. Right? Well about 60 per cent of us did - or did we? The talk of the winners on election night was about the will of the people, the voice of the majority, etc. - the losers talked of steamrollers and coattails and tidal waves and how they didn't have a chance. The pundits in the pressrooms talked about how the politicians had avoided issues, how the solid definable choices had failed to materialize and how the election had become a simple per- sonality contest. It's the same every election. Did we really give the Liberals a mandate to do anything specific? Or did we give them the prize for "Best presentation to an apathetic population"...and carte blanche for the next four years? Does anybody, least of all the Liberals themselves, know what David Peterson will do with his mandate in the next four years? Abraham Lincoln gave what is undoubtedly the simplest and clearest definition of democracy - "government by the people, for the people, of the people." Yet today, more than a hundred years later, that ideal is far from realization. In a true democracy, decisions are made in accordance with the specific will of the people. In order for the people to express their will, they must first have the information on which to base their judgement. The "fac- ts' supplied in the last six weeks were few, were invariably disputed by the other parties, and failed to address the gut concerns of the public. If past performance is any guide they were probably false. The Conservatives in this election made great play out of the things the Liberals had said they would do back in 1985 and how they had really done things quite differently. So what else is new - remember Brian Mulroney's promises about patronage, Nixon's statements about Watergate - can we really trust any of them? The problem with modern western democracies is that they are no longer "of the people." They have become dominated by party machines driven by a lust for power - not for what that power can achieve for the people, but for the sake of power itself. To virtually all party machines, the end (getting elected) justifies the means (including half-truths, misleading information and outright lying). To the victors belong the spoils and "we the people" get what we deserve. Or do we? - is it our apathy or are we-simply pawns? Western democracies pride themselves on a free press - the guardians of democracy and all that jazz. Yet even the press gets little satisfaction from governments when it asks the tough questions - it may be able to print all the facts with no hindrance whatsoever but it has to find those facts first. And when the gover- nment labels them "hearsay," or "a pack of lies" or simply ignores them, what does our "free" press do then? The book and the movie "All the President's Men" about how the Watergate scandal was cracked by a pair of reporters from the Washington Post gives an excellent insight into the pressures that the media face when they report the ugly side of government. Watergate was a hunch which paid off, but for everyone of those, there are a hundred that lead nowhere. Most of us can smell a rat a mile away - finding it and proving it is time-consuming, expensivë and frequently impossible. Watergate and its associated "dirty tricks" are classic examples of the extremes of election politics. Durham Centre had no break- ins at any of the campaign headquarters but like all ridings we had accusations of signs being stolen and literature being collected and dumped by the opposing parties. We also had a picture of the executive of a non-partisan educational action group published as part of an ad for the Conservative candidate when the group had apparently been told that the picture was for the candidate's "scrapbook". As one who has been on the inside of several election campaigns, I know the kind of partisanship that occurs, the rationalizations, the half-truths and the self-justification that dominate a campaign in the final days. The winner takes all and only winning counts - the voters are nothing more than the means to the end. Are elections an expression of democracy or are they only charades? In excess of $130,000 was spent in Durham Centre in the last six weeks by the candidates in an effort to win your vote. Twen- ty per cent of that will come out of the taxpayer's pockets when the candidates file their financial statements. Add to-this the tens of thousands spent on polling lists and polling day facilities and staff. And then there's the millions spent by the parties at the provincial level on television and media hype. Were you impressed by the largesse? And even after all that, only 60 per cent even bothered to vote. Was it because they didn't care? Or were they confused by ail the accsatons prmissetc? Or could they see no real difference in the pries? Or were thtey simply turned off by it ail? Probably all of these. But maybe the ones that stayed home are really smarter than the ones who voted. Those of us who voted convinced ourselves that it mattered, but deep inside we know that for the next four years, we're going to complain about how unresponsive and out-of- touch the government is. Our leaders seldom respond directly to the public veill and only when it suits the rest of their agenda. So, was democracy served? Fr Dr~.. _ us flWWb £' IRI *e) iliiio; A CONTEST FOR SUMMER STROLLERS AND SUNDAY DRIVERS Sponsored by Whithy's LACAC* to encourage an awareness of our local architectural heritaize Each week though the summer, the Whitby Free Press will publish a picture of an architectural detail of a building somewhere in Whitby. A draw will be made from ail the correct entries received by next Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. for a copy of an interesting heritage book The correct answer along with a picture and description of the building in question will be published in the next issue along with a new mystery detail. All entries will be entered into a grand prize draw on Sept. 26, 1987 THIS WEEK'SWINNER David Godsell, Brooklin WATSON - GALBRAITH HOUSE 1733 Dufferin Street, Port Whitby This fine two storey frame house was built in 1857 by John Watson, a partner in James Rowe and Co., the biggest grain mer- chants and owners of Whitby har- bour at the time. After his death in 1879, the harbour was acquired by David Galbraith and James Mc- Clellan who operated it until 1905. Galbraith purchased this house in 1883 and occupied it until his death. The house also contains a marble fin laep which was moved from If you can identify this picturé, submit en- the Theodore McGillivray house at try below to the Whitby Free Press, 131 Perry and Dundas. when it was Brock St. N., Whitby, LiN 5S1. Winner will demolished in 1954. be selected next Tuesday at 10:00 am. LOCATION Name Address Phone No. *LOCAL ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE il III ILIIML rd rd 1 1r Lacogo