10-26-2014, 04:03 PM
Governance by referendum is a disaster wherever it has been used.
Example 1: Education funding in the U.S. held at the city/town level has given them the most bizarre and failing system in the world and IMO the worst education in the western world.
Example 2: California has referendums on the most ridiculous issues at every level of governance and they have micro-management referendums on how many dollars can or will be spent on budgets and projects. ( their voting level is not much better than Ontario or Kitchener or Cambridge) California has gone from a progressive state to a state paralyzed at every level by referendums on every subject.
There are many, many more examples.
Canada/Ontario/Waterloo Region/Kitchener/Waterloo/Wilmot/Cambridge needs to learn from the efforts to paralyze governance called referendums rather than empower our elected officials to govern on our behalf which is what our non-republic, democratic process is founded upon.
Example 1: Education funding in the U.S. held at the city/town level has given them the most bizarre and failing system in the world and IMO the worst education in the western world.
Example 2: California has referendums on the most ridiculous issues at every level of governance and they have micro-management referendums on how many dollars can or will be spent on budgets and projects. ( their voting level is not much better than Ontario or Kitchener or Cambridge) California has gone from a progressive state to a state paralyzed at every level by referendums on every subject.
There are many, many more examples.
Canada/Ontario/Waterloo Region/Kitchener/Waterloo/Wilmot/Cambridge needs to learn from the efforts to paralyze governance called referendums rather than empower our elected officials to govern on our behalf which is what our non-republic, democratic process is founded upon.