The concept of collective policy-making has existed for a long time, but democracy, which allows most adults to vote, has a relatively short history. Canada was well into the 20th century before women could vote. Not until 1947 did B.C. extend the vote to Chinese and South Asian Canadians. Asian Canadians could become fully-fledged citizens, a right that had long been denied to them.
https://bcanuntoldhistory.knowledge.ca/1940/chinese-get-the-vote
Indigenous people were discouraged from exercising voting rights until 1960.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.899354
For most of my adult life, I thought almost all Canadians valued democracy, and the system of government was secure. I have since concluded that about half our population doesn’t much care and they would happily support a criminal despot if that put a few extra dollars in their pockets.
Here are a few quotes about democracy from thoughtful people:
A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy, educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.
Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic
Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.
Carrie Chapman Catt, American women’s suffrage leader
I subscribe to the belief that socialism is not about the public ownership of the means of production, but about the public ownership of power. That means democracy.
David Lewis, lawyer and Canadian politician
Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.
Albert Moravia, Italian novelist and journalist
Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.
Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Guatemalan human rights activist
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian
Democracy is a slow process of stumbling to the right decision instead of going straight forward to the wrong one.
Anonymous
Whether democracy regains its footing will depend on how democratic leaders and citizens respond to emboldened authoritarians and the fissures within their own societies.
Larry Diamond, Stanford professor and founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy.
Totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within.
Hannah Arendt, American historian and philosopher
We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different dreams.
Jimmy Carter, American President
Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
Categories: Democracy
in-sights.ca 
Well written Norm.
A few years ago I was introduced to the history of a “City State” in the Mediterranean Basin that existed successfully for 700 years. This was when marauding for slaves to row boats caused all Med. communities to do things like build stone sanctuaries called “Neragies” , as on Sardinia.
To get lasting democracy everyone had to be willing to be on the governing council for a short time.
This was the community’s protection against “conflicts of interest”.
Growing, large populations is when democracy is most at risk.
Cheers Norm
LikeLiked by 1 person
Although each vote may be counted in Canada’s First Past the Post electoral system, each vote does not have equal weight (where the number of seats held by a political party reflects the number of votes that party receives).
As the current US President and those backing him know all too well, “First Past the Post is an engine for overriding the majority.”
https://electoral-reform.org.uk/trump-shows-how-first-past-the-post-gives-the-keys-to-extremists/
“Under First Past the Post, rather than representing the political opinions of the country in proportion to the number of people that hold them, each area is represented by a single person. This person doesn’t need the majority of voters to pick them, just one more vote than the second-placed candidate.”
In the 30+ years we have lived in our North Okanagan Riding, our votes have never counted (been turned into support for the party we voted for). Furthermore, we’re convinced that a chipmunk would win in our riding, if it were the Conservative candidate!
Given all of the above, what’s so democratic about Canada’s First Past the Post electoral system?
LikeLiked by 1 person