Dear Lady Justice: I want to believe that you exist.
I dream that you will one day appear and become a part of our customs and habits; that you could become standard by which we live our lives. How come there are so many obstacles on the road to achieving this? Why is there so much interference around you? Why are there so many clouds hiding your perfect form from our eyes?
If I want to vote for someone because I think they’d make a good prime minister, I have to vote for their party, which may not have a vision of society that I particularly like. Even worse, I may be forced to vote for a local candidate in my riding that I don’t even know.
How do I vote if I wanted a minority government? I might be obliged to vote strategically for one party or another.
And when I get the bad impression that certain people are in office for their personal interests rather than for society, what tools do I have at my disposal for getting a democracy worthy of the name?
Do certain politicians who promise the moon and the stars to get elected ever become accountable for what they’ve told us? And what about all that money promised to this or that group once these politicians are in power? Should we consider these payouts a form of bribery? What about all these “orphan” groups that don’t have enough clout to have their support purchased?
Given all this, can we consider ourselves to be living in an equitable society?
First seen in: Reflet de Société, Vol. 28 no. 1, February 2020, page 4
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