Dear Editor:
Re: Political diversity is crucial for democracy, Our View, Burnaby NOW, July 27.
Burnaby city council and the Burnaby board of education, like Burnaby itself, are perfectly fine examples of diversity and democracy.
Our municipal representatives all come to public life from a wide range of backgrounds, mirroring the very public that elected them to serve.
Burnaby's mayor, councillors and school trustees are a blend of diverse cultures and languages, generations, genders, viewpoints and values, as well as personal experience and professional expertise.
Granted, they all belong to one political party: The Burnaby Citizens' Association. But that fact is not undemocratic.
Rather, it is simply the product of Burnaby residents freely exercising their own democratic rights and fulfilling their civic duties, by voting for whom they believe give Burnaby the best governance possible. (Maclean's magazine, for one, agrees with the majority of the electorate and has named Burnaby Canada's best run city.)
Now, three years have passed, and Burnaby voters again have a choice. Democracy itself will not necessarily be strengthened nor weakened in our fair city ("fair" as in open, just and progressive) by the particular choices we mark on our ballots in the
next municipal election.
What is, however, crucial for a strong and thriving democracy is more political participation.
So over the next few months, let's all help keep Burnaby strong by getting involved, getting informed, getting heard and getting out to vote on Nov. 19.
Harman Pandher, Burnaby
