Re: Mission’s municipal reclassification request alternate approval process elector response:
It would be a waste of everyone’s time and patience to list all that is wrong with this process. So let’s just keep it simple.
Firstly, the process violates its own title. The elector response form provides no opportunity to register approval.
So there’s no way to determine how many voters (or what percentage) actually approve of the proposed name change.
Secondly, by only counting one side of public opinion, being those sufficiently disgusted to go to the trouble of expressing their opposition, this means that voter apathy (i.e. not voting) is given the same value as positive public support.
Thirdly, the arbitrary 10 per cent standard to determine the outcome is a 100 per cent violation of democratic principles.
Council well understands that democracy is based on majority rule, that the democratic process necessarily counts the votes on both sides of any issue, with the result determined by which side has the most votes.
How could Council ever think that this alternative approval process measures up to the fundamental standard of democracy?
Jeff Jewell
Mission