By Katie Stobbart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 22, 2013
Another election over, another disappointing result. Another four years of people griping because of untrustworthy politicians, another four years of poor decisions that do perhaps irreparable damage to our province, from education to the environment to the economy.
I’m not ashamed to say I was in the other camp. I was not head over heels with Adrian Dix, I didn’t think the NDP ran the best campaign when it had the ability to do so, but I agreed with most of the platform and I don’t believe in rewarding the Liberals for 12 years of screw-ups and poor leadership.
I am not certain why the NDP did not use basic facts to take down the Liberals’ assertions about economic strength and stability. Despite Clark’s promise of a “debt-free” BC, provincial debt rose by $11 billion during the two years of her leadership, and with her government’s frivolous spending in the past, I very much doubt we’ll see that debt decrease.
Perhaps NDP campaign organizers assumed people knew the facts already, or that an orange win was in the bag, or that the population’s fatigue with dirty politics would give their no-attack campaign the advantage, but they assumed wrongly. And they lost.
Many will disagree with me vehemently (this is the nature of politics) but I think one of the most frustrating element of every election I have seen is the amount of garbage people believe. Empty statements, lies and complete folderol are bought and real facts are casually ignored. The reason? People fail to do diligent research. Whether they base their vote on hearsay or party prejudice, vote irresponsibly or don’t vote at all, the bottom line is that the Liberals are in power because of poor participation. Voter turn-out was less than half the population.
Over the course of this election, I have knocked on doors, I have conversed with friends, acquaintances and strangers, I have looked into various standpoints on the issues, and I volunteered as a scrutineer at five polls in Mission. Here are some of things I heard in both Mission and Abbotsford:
“I don’t care about politics.”
“I’ve never voted a day in my life; my husband does all that stuff.”
“I don’t even know the names of the candidates. I just vote the way my church tells me to vote.”
“I’m here to vote, but I don’t know who’s running. Can you tell me what each of the parties is offering, or something?” Because I’m not allowed to do that at the polling station, the answer to that is no. After she voted: “Well, hopefully I marked the right name.”
“I threw away my vote.”
It’s hard for me to write on this topic because the rampant ignorance exemplified above makes me so angry. People seem to think politics does not affect them, or they don’t care.
Yet your vote is your power. That is how it is supposed to be, anyway. So my true disappointment on the advent of the next four years of Liberal leadership lies in the knowledge that their victory was handed to them, not by the people who participated and did their homework, but by the people who skipped class or showed up unprepared.
I guess it’s like Christy Clark said at the beginning of her victory speech: “Well, that was easy.”
To those people who did participate in this election and voted for the candidate who they felt best represented their communities and their province, I offer sincere thanks. Unfortunately it’s pretty hard for any system to function at half capacity, and democracy is no exception.
