Pressure groups, lobbyists, civil disobedience and petitions are all good ways of actually reaching the government with your issues or issues of the people, most of the time. Mostly it comes down to the specific issue you’re dealing with, and what it requires. Pressure groups, petitions and lobbyists are more of a calm way to approach the government with your concerns, but that might not always work, that’s when civil disobedience comes in, Breaking a law to stand up for what you believe in or what you don’t think is right. We see this in many historical events such as India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi helped lead the Indian independence act, fasting for days on end to prove that civil disobedience doesn’t need to be aggressive to still work.

Benefits to living in a democracy are petitions, a Petition is formal written request, typically one signed by many people, appealing to authority associated with a specific cause. The government in Canada encourages you to Petition for what you want to see in the future or what you think benefits the community, this allows us to have our opinion at least heard without having to start a protest or physical movement. This can be especially useful because the government doesn’t feel threatened by your approach and in some cases might even be more inclined to listen, for example Mr. Vander Zalm petitioned to drop Harmonized Sale Tax and said people should only have to pay Provincial Sales Tax, the government requested that 10% of all the voters in British Columbia sign for this and they will consider it. Not going exactly how Mr. Vander Zalm planned, the government stepped in and asked the people what they wanted, and HST was gone forever.

Many of the things that makes Canada, Canada wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for pressure groups, lobbyists, petitions and civil disobedience, Viola Desmond was a huge step in the right direction for Canada and the equality movement. We can’t say we are where we are today because of Ms Desmond but little thing counted when it came to pushing the rights of African Americans. These forms of communication between the government and the people show us that not only is a public voice important, it shows us that, that voice could be yours.