LETTER: Wake up and get involved in democracy in White Rock<\/p>\n
Published 7:00 am Saturday, September 19, 2026<\/p>\n
Editor,<\/p>\n
As we approach the 2026 municipal election, we find ourselves reflecting upon our brief time living in White Rock. We moved from Montr\u00e9al to B.C. to be closer to children and grandchildren, just prior to the last municipal election. We did our best to inform ourselves, and as is our right and responsibility, we voted. We then watched and listened as our municipal government governed.<\/p>\n
The subsequent byelection, and the results thereof, left us feeling uneasy, and we wondered about the low voter turnout. In the days following, in casual conversation, we were dismayed to learn that many of our new friends and neighbours were unaware that there had been a byelection. That set us to consider our values, asking \u201cWhat do we care about in life in our new hometown?\u201d<\/p>\n
We care about a democracy that welcomes, indeed encourages, and informs respectful freedom of thought, voice, emotion, and that works against indifference. Sadly, we do not see this here and now in White Rock.<\/p>\n
We care about respect for the land, its resources, and the people with whom we share it. We do not recognize our values being lived in the existing landscape, nor in plans for future development being put forth by the current administration.<\/p>\n
In order live the values we claim to care about, we follow council meetings, engage in an exchange of ideas with fellow citizens, and when given limited opportunity, with council. We do this with a view to having a broader influence, thereby possibly improving local circumstances.<\/p>\n
We vote at all levels of government after informing ourselves to the best of our ability, given the perspectives offered by candidates and news agencies.<\/p>\n
We encourage all members of our community to inform themselves, share with others, and finally, to vote on October 17th. Wake up, White Rock. When is now.<\/p>\n
Judith McBride & Leslie Szabados, White Rock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LETTER: Wake up and get involved in democracy in White Rock Published 7:00 am Saturday, September 19, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-903026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}