Democracy, the Grassroots, and the BC Liberals

In reviewing several dictionaries, it seems the most common description(s) for the word “Democracy” would include...

1.        government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

2.        a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.

3.        political or social equality; democratic spirit.

4.        the common people of a community as distinguished from any privileged class; the common people with respect to their political power.

So in British Columbia then, democracy would be a government where ultimate power is with the people in that they elect their MLA's – who should then represent each of us in Victoria. It would be a government where each of us have equal rights and privileges ... and where no one person is more important than the other.

My MLA happens to be Kevin Krueger, and he has been elected to represent the voters of Kamloops South Thompson in the legislature in Victoria.  As I understand the definition, he would be there “serving to represent”. Another definition would be that he is “standing for, or representing, others” … “others” being the constituents of Kamloops South Thompson.

Some would say however that the current Liberal government, of which Kevin Krueger is a member, has been anything but representative of the vast majority of people.

Given that, I find it puzzling that since Gordon Campbell announced he was stepping down to allow for a leadership race in the Liberal Party, we have a handful of people saying they are part of the grassroots and they want to represent us. Where were they during the past 10 years – including Christy Clark who was part of Campbell's cabinet. This group of leadership hopefuls didn't speak up for us before, so why should we expect them to act any different now?

As I understand it, the definition of “Grassroots” is a movement that is driven by the politics of a community (ie: British Columbia). It also implies that the movement is natural and spontaneous – as opposed to something that is orchestrated by traditional power structures (ie: the backroom deal-makers of the BC Liberal Party).

I don't see anything natural at all about this sudden belief in “grassroots democracy” by this crop of people who wish to lead the BC Liberal Party, and by extension be Premier of British Columbia.  It does seem spontaneous though … a spontaneous newfound belief that has came about, some would say, since the downfall of Gordon Campbell.

Grassroots movements are often at the local level, as many volunteers in the community give their time to support the local party. That is what the BC Conservative Party has been advocating for some time now, as it reaches to the true grassroots of the province to build and create a political party that is inclusive, while at the same time knowing and believing that each us has equal rights AND responsibilities.

Speaking to the BC Conservative Party AGM in Vancouver his past October, Conservative MP John Cummins stated:

“We want to create a broad base in the middle, not the extremes from both the left and the right ... Union workers are not poor, they are hard-working people looking for a government that will keep taxes down so they can keep more of what they earn. Those are the people we need on our side,” he said. “WAC Bennett got support from the middle ground, and union members voted for him. He won the province by looking out for the people.”

That seems to me to be a real understanding of the grassroots, and what grassroots democracy is really all about.

That's how I see things any way, I'm Alan Forseth