In the 1989 classic film Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner's character is driven to build a baseball diamond in the middle of an Eastern Iowa corn field after being almost haunted by voices telling him "if you build it, they will come." Well yours truly wasn't haunted by voices over the Easter weekend but my experience each time I checked my email could best be described as "if you write it, they will respond."

Loyal readers will recall that Saturday's column implored Canadians to get off their duffs and actively participate in our democracy instead of sitting on the sidelines like spectators at a boring baseball game. It struck a chord and for a scribe that prides himself on staying close to the pulse and beat of public opinion, even I was surprised at the depth of cynicism and distrust that Canadians harbour toward politicians and our institutions of government.

J. Henderson of Abbotsford, B.C. wrote: "The Chretien years have left me, and I'm sure a lot of others, so angry and frustrated because his government is so incompetent, crooked and wasteful, that I believe our entire system of government should be changed. Rather than anarchy or open revolution, western separation is becoming the most attractive and probably only option available, and I am now devoting my efforts towards this outcome."

Others in Alberta and Saskatchewan, echoed Mr. Henderson's sentiments. To be frank, yours truly has no time for separatists, be they from Quebec or Western Canada. I travel the country frequently and have found that the country works best when Canadians direct their energies toward Confederation as opposed to away from it. Westerners can be justifiably proud of the fact that if it were not for the birth of the Reform movement, Paul Martin would have never balanced this country's books … albeit on the backs of taxpayers.

Many writers from Ontario - obviously frustrated small-c conservatives - lamented the sorry state of partisan conservative politics in our fair province and the chronic vote-splitting between the PCs and the Alliance. Unless we change our voting system to make it more proportional, this frustration will fester and it was clear that these folks held more vitriol for Stephen Harper and Joe Clark than they did for Jean Chretien's mediocre - I'm being very generous - administration.

C. Scott responded by asking, with tongue partly in cheek: "Do you not think it is time for a Charter of Duties and Obligations to parallel our rights and freedoms?" He went on to state: "I've done all the things you mentioned as duties of Citizens and am still looking, like Diogenes, for an honest politician!" Ouch.

L. Halls in Edmonton mentioned she writes MPs, attends debates, etc., and asked - as did many others - "Does it really make a difference in this country to do what I am doing?" As an optimist by nature, my answer is an unequivocal yes but I will admit that fighting big government is sometimes akin to trying to tear down a brick wall with a toothpick. Mr. Gingrich from White Fox, Saskatchewan (yes, I had to get out my atlas) agreed and wrote, "a working citizenry can easily change things for the better and we can get rid of useless governments and government programs such as the gun registry."

P. Arsenault in Lac La Biche, Alberta (thankfully my trusty atlas was still nearby) mentioned that giving politicians an "uncomfortable" feeling is also a small measure of success. Indeed, suasion through embarrassment - by exposing scandals and waste - is one of the most powerful tools we have in controlling government excess.

J. McLenaghan of Ottawa wrote, "I hope your admonishment gets some freeloaders off their duffs." Me too! This was and remains the point of Saturday's column.

Leadership theorist Warren Bennis astutely notes that a democracy ceases to be one when it cannot find fault with itself. When it comes to our democracy, we must never give up. We must remember the image of a lone man standing in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. We must remember endless lines of black South Africans - many of them elderly - who lined up for hours in staggering heat to cast their first ballot in an election.

Our democracy is very precarious and inaction on the part of the citizenry is a precursor to losing more of our individual freedoms. Thomas Jefferson said it best in 1787: "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised … sometimes when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all."