OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a letter about mayoral candidate Mason Ainsworth’s claims of threats and a bribery attempt, published Sept. 30.
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I stand in agreement with Ian Richards when he says we do not want American-style electioneering.
However, the mood, temperament and morality of our society is in decline. Consider the OrilliaMatters article, “Barrie’s mayor required police protection due to threats,” where Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman has required police protection during his time in office. Mr. Lehman is not seeking re-election.
In Allan Baker’s letter to the editor, “Hughes has shown ‘disregard’ for residents, media,” Allan says, “Both Mayor Hughes and Deputy Mayor Ralph Hough have legitimately complained in OrilliaMatters articles about fictitious writers who post vexatious and malicious comments on social media.”
To immediately suspect that Mr. Ainsworth is resorting to American-style electioneering is arm-chair judgmentalism that fails to consider the warnings of local leaders, and the organizations monitoring the health of world democracies. In 2020, the Economist Intelligence Democracy index recorded a decline in the overall scores in almost 70 per cent of the countries they monitor. In November 2021, The Guardian reported that the U.S. was added to the IDEA think tank’s annual list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, and this was also reported in the Washington Times.
If you don’t know how we are moving towards decline, you may not recognize the Marxist ideals arising within the angst on the streets of North America. Many social commentators point to the rise in Marxist revolutionary views emerging from our colleges and universities.
On Sept. 1, British MP Penny Mordaunt commented on the Onward’s Age of Alienation report, saying, “Both democracy and capitalism are like Tinkerbell’s light. If you stop believing in them, they die. The lack of support for democracy amongst young people is both concerning and unsurprising. This report is right to point to the links between social connectivity and political opportunity.”
Six days ago, the University World News suggested, “Universities should make democracy education a requirement.”
I am not quick to accuse Mr. Ainsworth of electioneering because I still believe that police are competent to serve, protect and thoroughly investigate. I still believe that if charges are laid against anyone, including Mr. Ainsworth if his accusations are vexatious, the courts will serve and deliver justice.
Randy Baker
Orillia
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