In her May 22 opinion piece, Katie Stobbart tries to convince her readers that the outcome of the recent provincial election was the result of a failure of the democratic system to accurately represent the views of the majority of British Columbians: “the Liberals are in power because of poor participation”. If only the other 48 per cent of voters had shown up on election day! Surely they all would have voted NDP, resulting in a landslide “orange” victory! Really?
Here’s a different perspective: Maybe most BC’ers don’t actually want more inefficient government programs. Ditto for higher taxes. Perhaps they believe that it wouldn’t be right to leave an even larger provincial debt for their children and grandchildren to pay off. Maybe that’s why they chose to re-elect the Liberals, despite all their problems. Could it be that those hoping for an NDP win were in fact in the minority, that the election outcome wasn’t simply a product of voter apathy, that people didn’t want what the NDP platform had to offer? Impossible!
As for the woefully inaccurate opinion polls? I’m sure there is a myriad of theories and explanations for the complete failure of the polling firms to correctly predict the election result. Maybe response bias played a role? After all, people who work hard and who have children whose future is important to them likely have less time to spend on the phone answering pollsters’ questions than others who may have more to gain and less to lose (in the short term) from additional social programs and “free” government handouts. Anyway, in the end it is the people who show up and fill out a ballot who decide who will lead our province.
Certainly, uninterested and uninformed eligible voters abound. Nevertheless, the election has been decided by those who did participate, and the clear message (by share of popular vote as well as number of seats won) is that the people of BC do not want NDP leadership. Don’t assume that your own position represents that of the majority. And don’t trust polls.
– Jonathan Hall
