Monday, November 12, 2012

Michigan votes in favour of a new bridge.

Guess that you noticed that Michigan voters did not, on November 5  support the wishes of the local owners of the Ambassador Bridge to void the construction of a new one funded entirely by Canada.
About 60% of the electors at that presidential election night disagreed with the highly funded effort by the family to ignore the friendly overtures by their Ontario neighbours. It was certainly an interesting exercise, to determine the wishes of Michiganders by a democratic referendum.
Many other interesting questions were answered in similar fashions on that same day by   the twenty or so other states that  allow such demonstrations of democratic feeling. For example, Washington and Colorado (but not Oregon) voters felt it should be legal to smoke small quantities of marijuana. This result was despite the fact that such laws are federal in nature. It will clearly be more difficult to enforce them in those states; and - probably also in the adjacent province of British Columbia.
And three more states voted contrary to the majority of others in the country to permit same-sex marriages. All of this going on next door to  us, while we in Canada ignore the fact that our laws do  not permit such voices of democracy to speak. Will we, in Ontario, Canada, ever reach the 21st Century, where easier means of communication almost  demand better means for the citizens to express their points of view?