Editor:

In a Dec. 6 Chilliwack Times article, I believe, a man of the cloth, of one of the innumerable denominations that currently exist, pondered the fact that people appear to be leaving religion. It got me to wondering if there is any connection with the population drifting away from the religion, and also drifting away from elections.

One wonders if the younger, better-educated individual is finally beginning to see religion for what it actually is, at least the organized variety.

After all, the various churches have become incredibly successful business ventures over the centuries. One might go as far as to say that one church, the one that has had a longer tenure than the others, is historically the world's most successful business.

One other central point is that now there is only one religion that is openly prepared to kill to maintain religious control; unlike the past when they were all in the business of killing dissenters.

Maybe that the same younger, better-educated voter has finally cottoned on to the fact that our much vaunted democracy is really not a democracy at all. Sure we get the opportunity to vote once every four or five years, but how does that really count?

We vote for a candidate who, to have any chance of winning, requires the backing and resources of a political party; and who is therefore chosen by that political party. Should the candidate, who others chose for us and for whom we vote, win the election, then, his/her first loyalty must be to the party that backed him/her financially, not to the electors who voted for him/her.

Should the party who owns the candidate for whom we voted, achieve a majority of the parliamentary seats, that party will go on to form the government and the leader of said party, who was chosen not by the electorate but by the party will become the prime minister.

Now, when our candidate arrives in Ottawa, or in our case, be it a provincial election, Victoria, he or she will do exactly as they are instructed by the leader through the party "whips." Virtually, this individual who was sent by the voters as their representative to either the federal or provincial parliament, will, if he wants to stay in the job through future elections, do exactly as he/she is told. If told to jump, he/she may not even risk asking how high and when may they come down.

Colin Genders Chilliwack