Democracy is just a mirage

Re Growing disconnect between Canadians and Parliament, Column, May 2 David Herle is supposedly deep in thought about our fading democracy, looking for answers to fix the status quo. He feels installing a new government will not create meaningful change. Duh! Look at the failed promise and dashed worldwide hopes of Barack Obama’s election. The “old boys” would not allow him any success; it might initiate a series of challenges to their rigged game. The failed democracy in Canada is but a small part of a global phenomenon. Democracy is a mirage, a fiction the “1 per cent club” allows to continue. No, Mr. Herle, searching within the smoke and mirrors political game will yield no useful answers — people already know this, even if they don’t fully comprehend why, and that is why they feel that elections don’t matter. And they don’t. Big money, lobby groups, etc., run the game. Any new developments on repatriating any of those billions in tax havens so recently made public? No. Politicians are there to please the plutocrats, not the serfs.

Al Dunn, Kingston

Finally phasing out old health cards

Re Old health cards gone by 2018, May 3 The Ontario budget announced that, at last, the government is phasing out the last of the old red and white health cards. The “new” photo cards were introduced in 1995 and are now held by about 80 per cent of Ontarians; getting rid of the last of the old ones is long overdue. The old cards, which have no photos or expiry dates, make fraud far too easy and one wonders why it will take another five years to get rid of all of them.

David Crawford, Toronto