Editor: Hello – my name is Sophia Tafel. I was born and raised here in Canmore and am currently in Grade 7. I participate actively in many sports and use parks like Larch Park. I even started working, part time, so I do not need to rely on my parents to buy stuff.
I oppose the sale of any part of Larch Park. Here is why. As a school project, I wrote a piece on democracy.
Did you know that the word democracy comes from the Greek words demos-kratia, which means the people rule.
In our modern day democracy, however, the citizens don’t have much say in what goes on in the government; including a town government like Canmore.
Yes, we vote for representatives, but after that, there’s no guarantee on how they’re going to represent us, if they will vote on issues as we would’ve voted, etc.
Because we have no vote on issues, like the sale of Larch Park, is it any wonder that people are so cynical about the political process and why trust in elected officials is at an all-time low?
We could change all that by following the Greek ideal of demos-kratia – the people rule. As my grandfather wrote in his book How to Restore Real Democracy to the Citizen shouldn’t citizens be given more say in things? I believe giving power to just a few elite members isn’t as good as the judgment of crowds.
In James Surowiecki’s book The Wisdom of Crowds he points to many examples where groups of people have improved upon the performance of experts. He shows in one of his countless examples, that a group, a bulk of many different individuals, many with a lot more common sense then we’d realize, are better at choosing what’s right than what’s easy. In one of the book’s examples, from a TV quiz show a contestant can ask an expert or the audience, for the answer to a question. Ninety per cent of the time the audience is right and only 60 per cent of the time the expert is right.
Some 1,400 people signed a petition asking the town to stop housing development on Larch Park. If you believe that the majority supports your motion, why not put it to a referendum or a plebiscite vote and let the citizens decide?
Sophia Tafel,
Canmore
