After the rather distinct political leaning this blog has taken in the last few months it would seem only fitting that I ring in now and comment – post election – on Tuesday results. But while I do love politics – probably in the same way little girls love High School Musical – I was left deflated Wednesday morning. Not because the Conservative “win” was some great surprise, but because I felt pretty unaffected by the whole affair.
This probably has a lot to do with the fact that of the four leaders (five if you include Duceppe) there wasn’t anyone to truly “get behind” or believe in. Just pre-fab shells whose mouths seemed to spit out the same tired and regurgitated slogans.
And while I don’t think it’s a valid excuse not to vote, no one can argue that the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history has a lot to do with the fact that none of the running candidates really engaged the voting public.
Harper sequestered himself on the final days of the campaign because he’s like nuclear waste – long term exposure makes people sick. The terrifying part is that he and his campaign knew this - hiding him was part of their strategy.
Dion continued to rattle on about unclear (to us) initiatives that just confused an already apathetic voter base. For so many people, voting Liberal was a routine as getting an oil change. Yet, somehow Dion made even that seem unpalatable, and helped lose his party 19 seats.
Jack Layton would put all his supporters behind him during stump speeches to give the illusion of larger and more raucous crowds on TV. When in reality 50 people stood staring at his hind-parts while 10 stood in front with the cameras.
And so on and so on.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of the US presidential race right now. Envious of some of that pomp and circumstance. Envious of the charismatic leader they’ll soon have (yup – that Sarah Palin is great…lipstick on a pitbull – it’s funny on so many levels).
Truth is when it came down to it, I found this whole Canadian election pretty underwhelming – and that seems kind of sad. Shouldn’t we be excited at the chance to pick our government – shouldn’t they spark something in us and make us want to vote?
Feels like lately, we’ve been forced to choose the least offensive person on the ballot instead of the most qualified.
2 comments:
Perhaps it is not so much the quality of the candidates as the medium into which they have to fit?
Truthfully, I maybe got about 2 hours of actually seeing these people in total and another 2-3 hours listening to interviews on CBC radio. Is that really enough to get passionate about anyone?
Even when I did hear about them it was all the one liners or gaffes.
The American election is about entertainment no matter how important it is, hell, they do election on entertainment tonight nowadays. Again I ask, did they fit the mould of their medium?
Is the medium truly the only message?
I believe that a lot of the issues around this election, including very low voter turnout, can be ascribed in part to the negative campaign on all fronts.
This election seemed mostly about who not to vote for and why.
When did anyone hear about what the parties would do on education, health care, infrastructure? Not much I'll bet.
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