Newsrooms find elections exciting. We will be at our stations Monday night glued to the results, getting a feel for which way the tide is flowing. We plan to do our best to provide up to the minute coverage on our website at www.newsoptimist.ca. Look for a special elections tab.
That coverage will focus on the local ridings of Battlefords-Lloydminster and Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek, but reporter John Cairns is also excited about providing coverage of the provincial and national picture.
It’s been a long campaign and in some cases a strange one. Social media gaffs seem to be the flavour of the moment, with many candidates dropped in a flash for questionable posts.
I’d be safe if I ever ran for politics, since I’m a complete social media Luddite. I’d be more likely to fall victim to a Jean Chretien type of gaff, because anyone who knows me is aware I am a complete klutz.
So political watchers can sit back and enjoy a few more days of hype until the voters have their say. Then there will be endless analysis and conjecture. Let’s hope, however, no scandals like robo calls or other shenanigans. It would be refreshing for the political machines to just let democracy, however flawed, take its course.
I won’t be missing the several hundred campaign emails from the political parties I receive every day. Since we are a community newspaper, I pay attention only if there is a local angle. There never was, except the one from Doug Anguish announcing his candidacy as an independent. We’d already published the scoop on that one, so it got the delete button treatment as well.
So, all there is left to do is vote. Many prefer going to the advance polls to avoid the hustle and bustle on election day. I enjoy voting on election day. It gives me a sense of joining in with fellow Canadians to do something meaningful and important.
Our democracy isn’t perfect, but it is a democracy. Not voting is giving up on the system rather than being a part of it to try to make it better.
Exercise your right to vote.
