I shouldn't be shocked to see that the BC Trucking Association and the Gateway "Council" are having quiet, behind-closed-door meetings with our governments to try and persuade them to tax us in different ways to help TransLink with their goals.

One might wonder if TransLink's goals were theirs from previous meetings in secret.

The audacity of groups such as this undermining our democracy and our papers advertising it as if it's quite right! It is not!

This is just another example of our failing governments. These people want to do good things for us in their minds, but highjacking democracy is a form of terrorism.

The funding options for public transportation were raised as part of the Livable Region Strategy when Mayor Gordon Campbell was the chair of the GVRD.

Hundreds of people representing our region participated in dozens of conferences and workshops over years to find consensus on all the possible ways to raise funding for public transit.

All these and many other good resolutions for our region's future were put on the back burner by the government of the day and there were many groups hiding behind the governments, telling them what they should "really do" - one of them being our universities.

Surprised to hear such a statement? I talked to them in person. That's why I know.

That's why I was not surprised about the truckers and the Gatewayers feeling they can just bypass the citizens of this region and get the politicians to do what they want.

I will not take the time to type out a long list of resolutions that were produced as I have done that too many times in the last 15 years.

When we go over budget on bridges, roads and transit without funding supported by an open democratic process, we really should be trying to stop these miscarriages of equity and, while we are at it, let's think about sustainability and political reforms.

Steve Mancinelli Coquitlam