Dear editor:

Canada is a representative democracy. What is the relationship between the representative and the electors?

In the case of municipal elections such as in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s, where candidates run as independents and not as members of a political party or of a slate of like-minded candidates, there are two theories defining that relationship: the populist approach and the Burkean approach.

In your June 27 editorial, “NOTL mayor and council can do better,” the editor stakes out a populist approach in equating listening with carrying out what the residents are instructing them to do.

“This is about having representation. A voice. A politician who listens … People don’t feel they are being heard or listened to. We live in this town, too. And one thing we should all hope for as residents of a democratic country, is that our voices are heard. That simply isn’t happening.”

What the editor does not explain is how a representative gets input from the residents, how the representative choses between conflicting and even silent voices, and how to deal with inconsistent voices on seemingly related issues?

Representatives get input from a variety of sources, some formal (eg. public meetings), some informal (eg. text messages, emails, telephone calls, discussions and conversations at public and private functions), some direct and some indirect (eg. when surveys and letters to the editor are published).

Often the inputs are conflicting and are quite few in number when compared to the votes cast in the last election.

In the last election, the major issue in St. Davids was unquestionably the proposed roundabout at the intersection of two regional roads in the centre of the village. The positions of the two candidates for lord mayor were diametrically opposite each other.

Candidate Gary Zalepa, when he was the regional councillor for NOTL, supported the staff recommendation for building the roundabout.

Incumbent Betty Disero was against it. Whereas candidate Disero, in a previous election, had won more votes from residents of St. Davids than her opponent, in 2022 she won significantly fewer votes than Zalepa did from residents of St. Davids.

There are many reasons why people vote the way that they do in an election but was this an example of the silent majority making their views on the roundabout known?

Sometimes populist voices are inconsistent on seemingly related issues.

At budget time it is not uncommon to hear representatives saying that, as stewards of tax dollars, tax increases should be kept at or below inflation. A purely populist sentiment.

However, if those same representatives vote for spending those tax dollars to fight unwinnable appeals before the Ontario Land Tribunal because the vocal voices are clamouring for them to defend the town plan, they could hardly claim to be wise stewards of our tax dollars.

The populist approach, which relegates representatives to being mere delegates of the “voices,” must be contrasted with the Burkean approach espoused by an 18th-century political philosopher and MP in the British Parliament.

In a speech given in 1774 to the electors in Bristol, England, Edmund Burke stated: “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion … Authoritative instructions, mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience, these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution.”

An example of the Burkean philosophy can be found in Brian Marshall’s June 27 column, “Wiens, Cheropita and past campaign promises” when he concludes as to Coun. Erwin Wiens: “Indeed, by defining what council wants as separate and distinct from what the town residents want, he promised to follow his own path.”

When I cast my votes in municipal elections, I do so for candidates who I believe will bring the best set of skills, experiences and judgments in dealing with the important issues facing our town even where I do not agree with everything that they stand for.

Ron Fritz
Queenston