Hello
Ratepayers!
It has been
a long time since we have had a meeting...but we think it is time, as a number
of residents have expressed concerns about the recent push for amalgamation....
Please
MARK YOUR CALENDARS and
JOIN US at the
The Women’s Institute Hall, 9909
Kalamalka Road,
Coldstream
Thursday, January 9, 2014
7:30 – 9:30 pm.
Coffee and cookies will be
served
Please pass the invitation on to
neighbours and friends in Coldstream/Lavington
********************************************************
3 comments:
A big NO to the "big boxification" of regional governance:
http://www.theloop.ca/news/ctvnews/local/alberta/article/-/a/2880458/Halifax-man-starts-petition-to-reopen-amalgamation-debate
File this under: Don't mess with my community...
re Amalgamation petition
I have difficulty politely expressing just how this offends my sense of fairness. Especially given the dubious quality of the signatures on the petition: several of those who "signed" the petition: "anonymous, undisclosed out-of-towners, and various, and sundry phantoms.
As a longtime Coldstream resident, I feel incredibly disrespected by those who actively try to undermine my community. What does my vote mean to you pro-mega-regionalists?
The notion that if at first you don't succeed, you must try, try again, is admirable in most things, however, when this attitude is applied to questions of public interest, it becomes an affront to democracy.
There is enough difficulty in getting harried tax-payers out to vote, so, when you add a cynical grab for power into the mix, you just reinforce the notion that your vote doesn't matter. Really shameful, self-serving tactics by a privileged cadre with a dubious agenda.
This agenda not only disrespects the democratic process, it undermines the notion of democracy. Don't like how the voters filled out their ballot? No problem: create a buzz by organizing a small, focused self-interest group to keep a non-issue in the media.
Then, pretend you are the true upholders of democracy, and choice, all the better to draw in trusting souls (including a few, key, very respected elected officials.
Machiavelli dined out on this stuff.
"Amalgamation: a 'threat' to democracy:
The idea of a Democracy is that at its basis is the autonomous citizen, capable of
making choices. As long as we retain this idea, he or she must make their own decisions
in fundamental matters of living-together; they cannot be delegated, because
there is no expert knowledge, no truth that would count. The basic unit of actual
living together, the least imagined and most “real” one, is the community in which
one lives, and that is the municipality. To have a say in this community and about
that community can easily be called the most basic idea of autonomy at all – today
in the globalized world as much as it was already in the Middle Ages. Coercive
municipal amalgamation is therefore not only generally inefficient and ineffective; it
is also a threat to Democracy and even to the autonomous individual as such."
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhalduskultuur.eu%2Fjournal%2Findex.php%2FHKAC%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F93%2F81&ei=KYSwUrSyMpTnoATH7oBY&usg=AFQjCNEUOi9L8WtmlPiLhVqyGoAClYzjQA&bvm=bv.57967247,d.cGU
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