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LETTER: When is a party not a party, but just a legacy?

'If you believe that one party is entitled to own Simcoe North, then you are part of continuing this travesty,' laments letter writer, who urges people to vote
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OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor ([email protected]). The following letter, in response to Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop skipping several local debates, is from Dennis Rizzo, who has been involved with the local NDP since 2015 as both a supporter and volunteer. 
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When is a political party not a political party?

The election cycle is upon us. Dialogue — both civil and profane — crowds our social media. But the issue confronting voters is what to do when your representative is not your representative.

When a party is no longer a party, but a legacy.

During an election, partisan politics rules. The messages are broad and designed to grab you by the gut. The candidates present their best foot forward. Most will promise anything to sway one segment or another.

Eventually one wins, and we all go back to our usual lives.

Whatever your political bent, you assume your winning, elected representative subsequently works for all residents of the riding. In a democratic society this is the case. In a closed society it is not.

Simcoe North has been a haven for Conservative candidates for so long most cannot recall any other option.

When one party or another becomes so entrenched it no longer sees the need to cultivate all the residents; it can cater only to select donors and members.

Subsequent candidates become aloof, arrogant, and deficient. Elected MPPs become unresponsive, absent, and self-absorbed.

I heard a theme when I first moved here. The PCs could put a blue shirt on a goat, and it would be elected. That’s not an election — that’s peerage.

If you believe that one party is entitled to own Simcoe North, then you are part of continuing this travesty. If you believe there should be a ruling class in Simcoe North, you deserve the inattention and lack of response you get.

The ruling class does not care about you, only about what they can use you to attain. The ruling class will use every trick in the book to gain your confidence yet, once your vote is no longer needed, will produce little or nothing that benefits you. 

It’s not an open party when the only choice is the host’s beer. Time for a change. Time for some new bloodlines in the riding. We don’t have a Magna Carta Oak, but we have the vote. Drop the aristocracy.

Vote June 2 or before.

Dennis Rizzo
Orillia

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