mike watkins dot ca : What-Who is Real Democracy?

What-Who is Real Democracy?

Yesterday we put out a press release on behalf of Real Democracy, in order to comment on the Prime Minister’s response to the Shapiro inquiry into the Harper-Emerson affair.

This naturally generated questions from the media about how Real Democracy fits in with all the other groups involved in fighting for democracy here in Vancouver.

In a nutshell, Real Democracy is:

  • a non-partisan organization, not affiliated with any political party whatsoever
  • simply a group of people from diverse backgrounds, most of whom did not know each other before February 6th, who are committed to carry on the fight for democracy in Canada because no one in Ottawa will do the job; many, but not all, of us are involved in one or more of the other groups which have sprung up over the Emerson affair;
  • working on a number of projects designed to raise awareness but more importantly understanding of the issues which the Emerson affair has highlighted; first among our projects is the Walk for Democracy, Sunday April 2nd – just over one week from now.
  • looking at the big picture – while some groups are single-purpose and have focussed exclusively on the Harper-Emerson affair, there are bigger issues at hand that need attending to even after the fight against Emerson has been won. Harper’s appointment of the unelected Michael Fortier to cabinet by way of a Senate appointment (despite Harper’s specific promise to Montrealers on January 12 2006 that we would not do such a thing) is, like the Emerson affair, but another symptom of a sick democracy.

That’s it. Not too complicated.