Thursday, May 20, 2004

A CITIZEN CANDIDATE FOR CANADIAN DEMOCRACY

Arjun Singh a regular contributor to the Blogs Canada E-Group has announced his candidacy as an independent in the upcoming election in the riding of Kamloops-Thompson.

From Arjun's innagural statement:

Our Canadian democracy needs revitalization. Low voter turnouts deeply concern me. I am also quite worried about the ambivalence, or worse the antipathy, that many Canadians feel towards their political leaders.
...
I believe Canadians need to send a strong message to political candidates and organisers that we do care about our government. And we need to make a statement that the politics of negativity and divisiveness are no longer acceptable to us.

Arjun's obvious commitment to Canadian democracy and the responsibilities of citizenship are commendable. He has also vowed to run a highly principled campaign, stating he will:

- Never impugn another candidate integrity or intentions
- Only actively soliciting the votes of people who have not voted before or have become disillusioned with the political process.
- Making it a point to comment positively on the things in other candidates policies that I agree with.
- Work hard to achieve in our riding the highest average voting rate in the country.

Arjun is running the type of campaign that I think most Canadians would actually like to see. He will not stoop to bribery and name calling in an attempt to win votes. He will not treat the people of Kamloops-Thomspon as mere voters to be won over, but instead as citizens who are capable of making informed decisions about the future of our country.

Some may say that it is easy for an independent candidate to run a campaign like Arjun's, for he really has nothing to loose, but that the major parties must engage in tactics that keep them competitive with the others. But I think that the major parties sell themselves short and more importantly abrogate their responsibilities to the nation by talking down to the citizenry. Canadians are desparate for more candidates like Arjun. The other parties should be paying attention.

Posted by Matthew @ 12:44 p.m.