WHAT IS REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY?
NEWSLETTER - MAY 29 2026
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
May 29, 2026
Below is the third newsletter for our objective to flip the flow of how we are governed. Instead of giving our power to the politicians … Let’s give that power to the people and let the people build their communities and govern themselves. We will issue these newsletters every 2-weeks between now and our local Election Day on October 26.
Imagine the people governing themselves. We can.
It is doable. But we will have to revolutionize ourselves to change that flow. We can do that too.
This mission starts local — from the neighbours in our communities to our local Town Hall. And the more that other communities do the same, the more the power of the people will flow into provincial and state capitals and right into the seats of the federal government.
We are starting it in our own local community … The Front of Yonge Township in Eastern Ontario Canada. Hopefully, we are setting an example for other communities to do the same.
Power to the People!
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WHAT IS REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY?
NEWSLETTER - MAY 29 2026
Here — in The Front of Yonge Township — we have not elected our local Town Council for at least 12-years now. It is high time to change that.
Democracy. That is what it’s all about.
AN INTERESTING CANDIDATE MEETING
I recently met with a local resident that expressed interest in running for Mayor of Front of Yonge Township this fall. He heard about us and reached out to explore if what we were offering would coincide with his goals. Fair enough.
Suffice to say that the fit did not align.
However, the meeting was not in vain. It validated our mission. It punctuated a lot of the reasons that we are advocating for a new approach to governance. It was a learning experience — as most interactions with our neighbours are.
Out of respect, I am not going to disclose his name here as there is no value in doing that — and who knows — perhaps he will see the light. We actually did agree on several things. Let’s just call him Mr. X.
The meeting started with Mr. X expressing interest in our mission to deliver a new local government. He presented his background (solid) and outlined his long-tenured residency in our Township. All good.
Mr. X punctuated the fact that we really have not elected our Town Council here for almost twelve years now. Nobody runs against the existing Council – they are just acclaimed. As such, there is no election and nobody votes for them. Absolutely true!
However, Mr X did not do his homework about us. On the same flyer he got my number from, we presented our website — complete with links to videos and newsletters. He reviewed none of it. As such, I had to explain what our core mission is.
I outlined two key foundational components:
That the exiting flow of power flows downward from the federal to provincial to local town halls and ultimately down to us – the people — on the bottom rung. I emphasized that this flow of power was backwards and had to be flipped right-side up. And;
That the politicians do not have ideas — the people do! I gave him several examples of issues which people have come up with while I was out canvassing.
Mr. X was completely taken aback by those two statements.
In response, he proceeded to lecture me about how “Representative Democracy” works. Basically – that we elect politicians to make our decisions for us!!! My rebuttal was simple: “It is 100% obvious that that does not work!”
I outlined that “Representative Democracy” was, in fact, not democracy at all. Maybe it is supposed to work, but we have to look at the reality of what it has given us. That it has morphed into a dictatorship of politicians making all the decisions for the community and its citizens. That “Representative Democracy” is the very approach that opened all the doors for the lack of transparency (secrecy) we currently experience. It also opens the doors to creating political representatives that can be corrupted (but that is a discussion for another time).
It became apparent that his objective in running for Mayor was to simply replace the existing Mayor with himself installed as the new maker of our decisions on how our community is governed. Basically, merely creating a new person operating the same status quo broken system.
Interestingly, he agreed that most of our neighbours do not even know who our Council Members are! But that begs an interesting question: How does “Representative Democracy” even work when nobody knows who represents them? His argument for sustaining a broken system becomes futile. But - Mr. X is obviously stuck with the status quo! Even though he readily admits it is broken.
I then proceeded to explain how we propose to engage with our citizens to govern ourselves. I outlined our Democracy App to enable everyone to present their ideas, discuss ideas, debate ideas, improve on ideas and actually vote on ideas. To actually allow all of us in our community to provide input and direction on how we are governed – using democracy as the process. From the convenience of their phones or laptops.
His problem with that was swiftly declared: “That is socialism!”
My response was equally swift: “No. That is democracy!”
It is up to the people to decide on the issues; to decide on even what ideology – if any – even applies. And here - in the Front of Yonge Township - our community is actually pretty conservative in nature. Democracy is higher up the ladder of freedom than ideology is. And actually on most issues ideology does not even apply. Common sense and creativity rise well above ideology.
In a nutshell, either case can be termed as “Representative Democracy”. We are offering to represent you by involving you in the decisions you want by having you tell us what you want. Meanwhile, Mr. X is offering to represent you by making the decisions for you without hearing you out about them. That is the status quo we have now. Just under a new Council — new in name only. But, more of just a Council that makes the decisions for you. The status quo.
Both alternatives are “Representative Democracy”. It is the form of representation that is different.
Mr. X also raised another ‘old-school line of thinking’ point: He stated that the Council was required to meet obligations and requirements dictated to us by the provincial and federal governments.
NO! That is backwards to the flow of democracy. It’s upside-down.
Dictates over our community by provincial and federal governments are extortion. Firstly, those ‘dictates’ should be presented to our citizens. When dictates are made, the Council should tell us about them. This is exactly why we no longer trust our government. Because governments at all levels are dictating how our society and communities are built while it is us who should make those decisions. The flow of democratic power should 100% flow in the opposite direction.
“Government for the People, by the People, of the People”. When provincial or federal governments extort us with their demands — our Council should inform us of that extortion and we – together – should address them. It should be up to us as to how we resolve them — or if we resist them — or even defy them. That should always be our choice. These decisions should not be done in secret by Council. We should work together with each other to solve them. We cannot use our power of community if we are not aware of what is going on.
The flow of democratic power has to get flipped right-side up. Provincial and federal dictates need to be addressed by all of us – and absolutely not in secret by our own local Council!!! I am not sure Mr. X actually got my point on this one.
IN SUMMARY
There does not seem to be a fit with Mr. X and our local campaign. While I did not close the door, I did give him some homework. I gave him our website (again) and asked him to view the videos and newsletters. Our platform is clear: Give the power to the people to govern and build their community themselves. Have the confidence that they will get every single issue right (they will).
I left the door open. He has our number.
My final observation is that Mr. X is in the Boomer Generation. He is stuck in the status quo of how things are — even though he himself admits it is not working. He readily admitted that our government, our corporations, our legacy media, and our institutions no longer hold any trust. He agrees that everything is rooted in corruption. Yet — he clings to the status quo of the very system that has failed us on all fronts.
Is his mind open to something new? I hope so, but I am not confident he will see that disconnect in the short term. We all have to continue discussions among ourselves. We must. We all will awaken — and we are all getting there. But let’s respect that everyone wakes up on their own schedules. We will leave the light on for them. And we will embrace them as they do wake up.
The good news is that we all see the problem. And that problem is the broken and corrupt status quo. Our remaining disagreement is about how we go about solving it. I take that as good news — albeit with some work to do.
Ultimately Mr X can run for Mayor. His choice. And it would be healthy if he did. It would give us all a choice. An election choice on the ballot and we can dive deeper into this debate and likely it would improve our outcome no matter what the final result is. That is how democracy is supposed to work.
NEXT STEPS
We have identified a full slate of candidates for all five Council positions. A couple of us are hesitant and hoping others will want to join us so we have five fully committed candidates. As such, our doors remain open for others who want to run for Council with us.
Until then, we are not presenting our candidates (there are some election laws and regulations we have to follow). Our current priority is to keep seeking candidates for our local Town Council. We will keep introducing ourselves to more of our neighbours. Again - every door we knock on, we will continue to keep learning – we will continue to hear what you have to say.
And we keep finding more and more great neighbours that exist among us! We know we can rule ourselves — and do a great job of it! That is getting confirmed by every door we knock on. We have good neighbours here. Many of us are a bit quirky but everyone wants better governance than we have now. A good community with all kinds of skills, experiences, talents, and creativity. And good ideas. Let’s give them the light of day!
If you feel this is something you can embrace, let us know. We would love to have you on the team.
We are organizing meetings every two-weeks between now and election day. Join us. Let’s start by nominating 5 candidates from among ourselves to form our next Town Council.
Who do you think would be good candidates? Let us know or have them contact us.
The next meeting will be held on MONDAY JUNE 8 at 7 PM at the Pavillion at the Mallorytown Recreational Park (at the soccer and baseball fields). JOIN US. JOIN YOUR NEIGHBOURS.
Subscribe to these newsletters. Stay informed. They will be issued every two weeks following each of our meetings. It’s all free, it’s fast and simple to do, and the newsletters will be sent to your email inbox.
Visit our website. Watch the videos about democracy and what it means to govern ourselves. Understand the power we actually have. The links are posted on our website OURTOWNHALL.ORG
And feel free to leave your comments and suggestions. Your ideas make our ideas better ideas. Democracy is a team game. Democracy is a community game. Let’s get on the playing field of democracy.
Power to the People!
