POLITICIANS SHOULD MEET WITH PUBLIC

A funny thing happened on Thursday, Aug. 8, when I travelled to Glace Bay to attend what I thought was a night to meet Andrew Scheer, leader of the federal Conservative Party, and his colleague Lisa Raitt as well as the two former provincial Progressive Conservative MLAs who resigned to run for the MP seats. I soon found out that all those who ventured there and were not on a certain list were refused entrance, including myself. How you got on the list or who made it up was not answered by the security and the dozen or so police officers assigned to that area rigidly enforced the prohibition.

Now, my idea of democracy is that we choose people to take our concerns to legislative bodies so that we have a say on how we are governed. Instead, it seems we send elected people who ignore what we want and then do what their political leaders tell them to do.

The two Conservative candidates running for the job of MP in our area have shown that they are not interested in our needs or wishes. I deduced this from their actions as MLAs for many years.

They have fought against equalization, a federal government program established to help poor regions of our country gain equal taxation rates, infrastructure, health, educational, social services, roads, etc. as richer areas, such as Halifax. The grant of $2 billion (or more) goes through the provincial government and, according to provincial studies in 2014, 51 per cent should come to CBRM. Meanwhile only $15 million arrives and then we pay $19 million back to the province.

Something terribly dishonest, illegal, immoral and uneconomical is happening here and voters should not be fooled by rhetoric or promises. Only we can change things.

Maybe we try to vote for independent representation as the political party system has not worked for us in many, many years.

Dr. Rev. Albert Maroun PhD The Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness