There will be other parties in this election
Take a look at the NOTA party — your vote won’t be tied to towing party line
The inclusion of several submissions (Deirdre Pike, Kevin Flynn and Paul Miller) a few weeks ago on this page is a clear example of the blatant way mainstream media provides free and therefore illegal campaigning for the top three political parties. I trust The Hamilton Spectator will support my campaigning too.
I retired three years early from teaching with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board due to my disillusionment with education in Ontario, which I have written about on this page.
After retiring I was volunteering at Rosedale School, the school I retired from, when I learned about the ARC (Accommodation Review Committee) proceeding that was proposing to close four schools in Ward 4 and 5 to make one large elementary school by rebuilding Viscount Montgomery. I did some research, knowing the harm such a decision would have on community schools, and families and their communities. I learned about the politics behind the rigged ARC process and the trustee coalition controlling HWDSB at the time.
I spoke about this rigged process at the ARC meeting and the HWDSB Liaison Committee Meeting with The City. I also decided to run for Trustee for Ward 4 in the Municipal Election. Unfortunately, I was running against an incumbent who had been the trustee for 40 years and since elections are really popularity contests, the results turned out as expected.
As I learned more about our politics, I became aware of the lack of democracy we really have and the corruption and injustices in our governance. In the last provincial election, I put a sign on my lawn saying, “No one to vote for! I decline my ballot” to educate people because most people, like me until I did some research, did not know you can decline your ballot. Not only does the government not want people to know this they also discourage people from
doing it by making them decline their vote publicly at the registration table and not in the privacy of the poll booth as they are entitled too.
I went on to research the registered political parties in Ontario and found The None of The Above Party. I am now running for MPP for Hamilton East/Stoney Creek. What initially started out as a desire to have the words “None of The Above” on the ballot has turned into a full out effort to educate people about our current party system, their “games” and how we need legislative and electoral reforms for a return to the democracy that everyone should be enjoying and not just the “privileged elite.”
The None of The Above Direct Democracy Party is among 18 other small registered parties in Ontario besides the top three. These parties are legally entitled to equitable coverage by the media but get almost none. The many organizations whose job it is to ensure that our laws and the rights of all parties are upheld does nothing to remedy this injustice.
Reporting on the government during campaign periods should be done with the greatest of observation to equitable coverage of all parties running. Selective reporting becomes free campaigning for those parties that are covered and is therefore not only illegal, it is unfair and undermines democracy. Small party candidates are actually threatened with arrest if they demand their place on the podium at all candidate debates.
Canadian politics functions more like the countries of Russia or China who suppress other parties’ voices. Small parties are kept small by the absence of media coverage and by actual undemocratic laws enacted by the parties in power to keep themselves in power. Even countries like Iran include all political candidates in their electoral debates.
The people of Ontario and Canada are entitled to democracy and control of their governance and they aren’t getting it. They deserve and are legally entitled to know what their choices are. No wonder voting turnouts are low. People are fed up with our current politicians, the party system and our corrupt governments and they feel that there is nothing for them to vote for or feel that their vote is wasted in the first-past-the-post electoral system.
I encourage people to research all the political parties. It only takes one ‘”click” to get to Elections Ontario and another to find all the registered parties. I did and discovered a party with goals, values and principles that I respect and who wants to give you control of your governance. If elected NOTA candidates do not have to “toe” any party line. There are no central party policies. No promises to break.
No longer do I have to vote for “the devil that I know,” or “the lessor of two evils. Vote strategically or decline my ballot!
Linda Chenoweth is running in the provincial election for the None of the Above party
These parties are legally entitled to equitable coverage by the media but get almost none.