Democracy is supposed to be about voters electing someone to represent them. It should start at the constituency level – each party putting their own candidate forward for the consideration of the electors of the riding.
Instead the local folks are left out of the process.
When all is said and done – only two of the five local candidates got their names and party affiliations on the ballot in a reasonable manner.
Political blogger Alex Tsakumis took it upon himself to give Margie Basso and John Slater an offer they couldn’t refuse – withdraw from the race or he would go public. With what we don’t know – they took his offer.
The result is that behind the scenes decisions subverted the candidate selection process.
Last week the Conservative Party dropped Mischa Popoff. No one can dispute that Popoff is outspoken. He speaks his mind and is quick to do so. After being turfed he argued his comments about single mothers and the missing women’s inquiry were misconstrued.
Maybe they were or maybe they weren’t.
But the point is – once again the decision of who should represent the people of this riding was tampered with.
Voter apathy probably has something to do with this sad state of affairs. We see these kinds of shenanigans going on and we lose faith.
But the expectations that a person has placed upon them go a long way in determining how they will behave.
Simply put, if we want different behaviours from politics and politicians then we have to start expecting that and insisting that we get it. Meanwhile, don’t lose faith. Get out and exercise your vote in this election.
The option to democracy is dictatorship or military junta and we can look at other places in the world to see how poorly those are working for the local folks.
– Boundary Creek Times