Dear Editor
For a long time, I have felt that the present Harper government has been playing fast and loose with our Canadian democracy, so I am pleased to note that the editorial board ofa prominent Saskatchewan newspaperhit the standson Monday, May 27 with the editorial, "Democracy under attack."
I agree that the Conservative Party spokesperson who was "bragging of victory," after a federal judge had ruled there had been widespread fraud in the 2011 federal election, provides an indication of how totally partisan Conservative Party thinking has become. Although the Conservative Party was the only one to possibly benefit by the many cases of proven voter suppression fraud, as the editorial points out, "Failing to achieve an impossibly high standard of proof is far from a finding of innocence."
Cynics may refer to cases such as the recent senatorial scandals and duplicity of the prime minister's office in regard to them as just another example of politicians' malfeasance, and blame the entire political system for them. However, this evidence of voter suppression by one of the parties in power should strike a note of real fear in any knowledgeable citizen. We cannot allow this kind of thing to become an accepted political tactic, or our democracy will become its eventual victim. Not all politicians are sleazy, or drunk with power, and to assume that they all are, is to give up on any idea of a democratic society.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
