So, what do we need an election campaign for?
Are there really that many people out there who don’t know who they’re voting for?
And my question is not just informed by the waves of discontent that have been washing up for the last few years on the shores of various social media platforms where frustration and anger over the “corruption” of the “Trudope” government lead by “Justine” himself rages.
When you read the comments section on our website and on our social media posts – not to mention the direct emails I get sent to me – you would think there isn’t a single person who has anything good to say about the head dictator in Ottawa (of course, I’m being sarcastic and using the terms that I see on social media, etc., to reflect the opinions I see, not my own, necessarily. I have to point that out because people read into things what they want to believe, so I have to make it clear that I’m being ironic/sarcastic).
So, on that basis it would seem there’s nobody voting for “Turdeau” (these are the actual infantile insults of Trudeau, I see. How’s that for rational political discourse?). So, he’s as good as gone, right? Well, of course, not really.
Why I’m raising this question is because there are people who don’t know who haven’t decided who they’re going to vote for. How can that be? Some people are going to wait and see what the candidates and/or the party leaders are going to say before they decide. Really?
Of course, I’m being myopic about this because, well I know who I’m going to vote for and have known for years. I vote according to my general set of beliefs and values and find the party that falls in line with them.
That’s what I’ve done since I could first vote, lo those many years ago, and it is what I am going to do when, in the future, I will cast my vote with my newly-installed cyber limbs carried to the ballot box on my pneumatic, atomic-powered replacement legs. Okay, that last bit was just for fun. By the time I’m in my elder years, I’ll be able to vote from my cell phone and won’t have to vote at a ballot box.
We could vote digitally now, if we wanted. At the very least, we can vote by mail, despite the likelihood that the government is going to throw all the opposing ballots into a ditch along the Menzies Bay Main north of town. (Irony warning: that’s not actually going to happen, nor has anything like it happened in the past – I’m just mocking the opponents of mail-in voting and their crazy conspiracy theories, like still-defeated ex-U.S. president Donald Trump)
You see, I have only ever voted for one party, ever since I could vote. Both federally and provincially and I probably will continue to vote for it for the foreseeable future. I did flirt briefly with the idea of voting for the candidate of another party in two instances but it was only a momentary fancy that was rejected.
So, I don’t need to endure another election campaign. I know how I’m going to vote.
So, let me vote.
The prime minister could have visited the Governor General and asked her to dissolve Parliament on Sunday, Aug. 15 and then held the election on Monday, Aug. 16, as far as I’m concerned. If Elections Canada was all geared up for the vote ahead of time, it could be done that quick.
But no, we have to go through this song and dance that is an election campaign. Where the parties will reveal what they say they’re going to do when they’re elected. Then they’ll get elected and they’ll do some of the things they said, won’t do some of the others and do some things that they never even said they were going to do.
Is all this electioneering necessary? If you’re a free-enterprise, less-government, let-the-private-sector-do-it type do you really need to hear all the candidates speak? If you’re a taxes-are-good, give-me-more-social-programs supporter, do you really need to peruse the parties’ platforms before casting your ballot? Or, if you like a mix of both, then isn’t it obvious who you’re going to vote for?
If you’re a Conservative supporter, are you really going to be swayed by something the NDP candidate is going to say? Will you suddenly have an epiphany and say, “Oh, I never thought of that, I’m dropping the Conservatives and voting socialist!”
Or maybe, the local Liberal candidate is an awesome guy whom you’ve seen and read about doing good stuff around the community for years so “dang it, the Green candidate is just a shyster, so I’m changing from my last vote and going with the Libs this time.”
Does that actually happen? I admit that almost happened to me a couple times (not the Liberal/Green bit, that was just a made up example), but, in the end, I stuck with my usual method of voting.
I vote for the party or, more accurately, the political philosophy. I haven’t yet had to “hold my nose and vote.” The couple times I wavered was because the other candidates were impressive people and they gave me pause. But, in the end, I stuck with my beliefs.
Does that make me unusual?
@AlstrT
editor@campbellrivermirror.com
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If you’re interested in responding to this commentary, feel free to email a reasoned, rational and respectfully-worded reply to editor@campbellrivermirror.com and I’ll run them in the Letters to the Editor online and in print.