On Monday the strategy of attack ads and mud slinging has backfired.
Could this be the end of negativity and fear mongering that has soured public discourse and made us all so cynical?
Yes, I would have preferred the NDP to be stronger, but I am still happy with the outcome. Justin Trudeau concentrated on a positive message, refused to rise to the needling of the Conservative war machine that spent multi-millions on throwing abuse at him, and still won big time. Seems to me that something snapped and Canadians just had enough of meanness.
Now I challenge Justin Trudeau to make good on the promise of electoral reform and scrap the first-past-the-post system. Then we can stop voting against what we think is wrong, and start voting for what we think is right, because we know it will be represented in parliament. Yes, it will be much more difficult to achieve the “pseudo” majorities the first past the post system gives us, and our representatives will have to learn to find common ground and work for all Canadians, not just their supporters. But isn’t that the goal of a mature society? Some of the most successful and stable democracies had nothing but coalitions for decades. And all of them have much higher voter turn out.
Florian Maurer
Naramata