There’s been a lot of political talk lately. Seems the democratic process is not working the way it should. Otherwise, good-looking self-confident Hollywood stars and good-looking self-confident sons of historical icons would not (seemingly) rule as dictators do in far-off uncivilized countries.

I think the problem is not with the democratic system. I think it is with us – the voters. We are so easily manipulated by the powers-that-be that lurk within each of the political parties. The media is their message board. We are led to believe that we must vote along political party lines. The party leaders need to recite their lines and perform personably on the TV screen so that their party can win the most votes come election day.

But the people we must vote for aren’t even on our ballot forms!

During the last federal election I could not find Trudeau, Harper nor Mulcair anywhere on my ballot form. I could only find the names of good old ordinary Northerners like me, who might be able to make a difference in my quality of life if they won in my riding.

And the same think happened during the last Provincial Election. I didn’t see Christy Clark’s or Adrian Dix’s names anywhere on my ballot form.

But that was okay. Our local candidates had congregated a few weeks earlier in our community and it had been interesting to hear what they had to say. They all had similar concerns as my own. And come voting day it was their names I had to choose from on the ballot form.

I think we’ve got to stop the perception of voting from the top down. We should build our democracy from the bottom up in the same way as everything else that’s structurally strong. And not so much emphasis should be placed on the figureheads at the top. I’m already feeling sorry for Trudeau because of all the crap that’s being thrown at him. I’ll bet he sometimes wishes he’d stayed in bed when the Liberals were looking for yet another a poster boy!