The Council replies: Letters to the editor

Citizen Participation

Cliff White
The Chronicle Herald
August 15, 2007
RE: "In this country, everyone gets to vote. Pity."

In a rambling and embarrassingly silly column about citizens participation in the political process Dan Leger suddenly lurches off side to take a swipe at The Council of Canadians.  As with most of the points he tries to make in the article he misses by a mile but the attempt itself is astounding.  According to Mr. Leger people demand trade barriers because they don’t understand foreigners.  In itself this is a stunningly simplistic statement although not out of keeping with other pronouncements in the article. He then goes on to suggest that people “Call the Council of Canadians for more on that.”  Although intended as a put down of The Council it maybe the most reasonable statement in the piece.  If people chose to follow his advice they would learn that The Council believes in and promotes fair trade but not corporate imposed “free trade”. They would also learn that The Council in fact works with and supports not “foreigners” but citizens and citizen organizations in counties around the world from the U.S. and Mexico, to South America, Europe Asia and Africa.  I’d like to suggest to Mr. Leger that the tens of thousands of members of The Council are fully engaged in the process of citizenship, perhaps a tad more so then he is himself and hopefully a lot more thoughtfully.

Cliff White, Atlantic Regional Organizer
Council of Canadians

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