British Columbians are about to get their fill of voting in the coming months. While it may be the ultimate form of democracy in action, we all seem bored and jaded by the whole process, something that is not lost on other countries.
If we can’t embrace or get excited about an election, a chance to vote, then why should a dictator-controlled country elsewhere feel the need to follow our way of choosing government.
If you judge democracy by our behaviour, by how the election process has been hijacked by voter cynicism and corporate greed, then why would any other country want to follow in our footsteps?
We are now heading for a federal election in early May. Beyond the widely predicted expectation of another minority government, there will come the referendum on the HST. And then Premier Christy Clark is hinting she will not wait until the current Liberal government’s mandate is up in 2013 to call another provincial election. And then there’s our civic elections coming this fall.
These elections and the referendum are about to cost us millions at a time when middle-class British Columbians, the fuel behind the economic engine in this country and this province, are being asked to pay more.
In reality, we are paying the price for the HST not being an issue in the last provincial election, as it should have been.
And the federal election is not necessary as of yet, as none of the political voting options — Conservatives, Liberals or NDP — have illustrated they are deserving of a majority mandate.
Why? Because we don’t trust them, a fact that our politicians continue to act oblivious to, happy to go forward on their pet ideologue issues without thinking about the best interests of all Canadians.
To see a change in that attitude would be something for democracy to shout about.
— Kelowna Capital News