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From: robinson@ubc-ean.CDN (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: re: Referendums (and Initiatives)
Message-ID: <832@ubc-ean.CDN>
Date: Mon, 22-Oct-84 22:34:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-ean.832
Posted: Mon Oct 22 22:34:30 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Oct-84 22:02:11 EDT
Organization: UBC EAN, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 27

>  
>  The referendum question, then, seems to be one mainly of power (who's running
>  this country, anyway, the government or the mob?) ... and of constancy
>  (make up your mind, already, should we hang him or not ?!?!?)
>  

Sounds like a loaded question to me. How about this one:
Who do you want running the country ?
A bunch of self centred politicians who can't see past the next election
or special interest group or the much hoped for political patronage plum
of a job *OR* you and your neighbours.

Also, why all this attention on capital punishment ? Try and consider the use
of referendums on some of the more mundane things in life. Like fer instance:
the drinking age; returnable bottles; private liquor sales; property taxes;
etc,etc. These are issues that we live with day-in and day-out but have
no real say in.

As you can guess I think referendums could be a good way to decide a lot
of the matters that we face, *but* what I would really like to see is the
use of initiatives whereby you or I could put an issue on a ballot 
by obtaining an appropriate number of signatures. 

With the three major parties all apparently moving to the centre, something
like the above is needed now more than ever.

                                                 J.B. Robinson