Home »
Voter apathy will crush us
Kootenay Crust
By Ian Cobb
Anyone else out there left stunned by Christy Clark’s Liberal Party’s amazing come-from-behind election victory last Tuesday?
I am personally thanking the heavens for not biting on some bets, because I would have bet, with complete arrogant confidence, that Adrian Dix would have sailed the NDP BANANA straight into the Minority Government harbor berth in Victoria.
I am also thankful I didn’t write a pre-election prediction column, because I would have been eating crow and wiping egg from my bashed in frontal identifier along with handing over bitter sums of cash.
It’s also a good thing CBC didn’t come calling pre-election for my two cents on the East Kootenay’s two ridings – Kootenay East and Columbia River-Revelstoke – for I would have leaped foolishly into their invitation to make an on-air prediction. In 2009 I made such a bold and patently foolish move and got lucky. That may have left me feeling smug and arrogant about my ‘political nose.’
In 2009 I predicted that Norm Macdonald would stomp Liberal challenger Mark McKee, which was risky because McKee was a good choice as candidate. I also made the safe choice when it came to the Kootenay East, picking Bill Bennett to hit the finish line an hour before his challengers knew the race was being run – no offence to those who had the hutzpah(Troy Sebastian) to take on the challenge.
Had I been asked to guess the results of last Tuesday’s shocker, I would have bet that Macdonald would defeat challenger Doug Clovechok by about 800 votes. He won by 1,476 – the closest of his three provincial election battles.
And I would have bet that Bennett would have defeated NDP challenger Norma Blissett by… 200 votes. I truly expected Bennett and Blissett to head down the finish line neck-and-neck for a spell. Whoops! Kootenay Bill’s margin of victory was larger than in 2009.
While the right candidates would have been guessed, my ‘nose for politics’ would have been punched square-on. Let it be known henceforth that one cannot nor should not count out Bill Bennett’s support in Kootenay East. He’s been a tireless advocate for the Elk Valley and Cranbrook area, successfully finding ways to bring gobs of provincial coin into his realm to help improve the highways and municipal infrastructure of all the municipalities.
He’s come under heavy fire for being ‘too outspoken’ and ‘too honest’ – which when you stop and think about it, is bat-shit loopy. A politician who is too outspoken or too honest! In the hard-working and partying East Kootenay?
Well, we don’t like our politicians to be Victoria suck-ups in the East Kootenay. And that is evidenced by the re-election of Bennett and Norm Macdonald – both hard-working and dedicated MLAs. Their records speak for themselves and the voting public who showed the proper civic duty and voted, rewarded them May 14. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.
But democracy’s inertia appears to be downgrading to half speed in this province.
Voter apathy has become a chronic problem in our society for a yawning chasm full of reasons.
Chiefly among them is sweeping mistrust of government of all stripes. There has become, from the sludgy, central, soft underbelly of society, a malaise of growing proportions.
It is safe to say, based on Tuesday’s results, that half of British Columbia’s voting public feel their votes are worthless – because whoever is elected to represent ‘them’ won’t be representing them. “They give lip service and kiss baby skulls while smiling warmly for the cameras but they’re sellout pukes – why should I bother?” cry the masses (in my universe).
After following Gordon Campbell, the oleaginous Vizier of Smarm, the BC Liberal Party carried around with it the stigma of being extremely arrogant, based on a periodic willingness to do whatever the hell they pleased, despite the optics or foolish strategy.
Political arrogance and detachment from the unwashed X or check mark wielding masses is another main reason half the voting province refused to turn out and vote May 14.
People are despairingly disenfranchised from Victoria, and Ottawa, and therefore feel their single votes mean nothing when the person they are voting for is a bought-and-sold sack of crap cheese muffin. Far too many politicians get into the game to attach themselves to gravy trains and stuffed troughs of public money and display great competency at prevarication and ladder scrambling. It’s obvious to all and yet half of us sit idly back and allow the circus to keep performing. Yawn; turn the channel.
Bill Bennett believes the NDP lost the election due to being over-confident – a trait that leads to smugness and arrogance, which the NDP showed in spades when it last ruled the roost in the Legislature.
Bennett stated on Facebook today (May 16) that the “NDP suffered incredibly from smugness and over-confidence,” one of 10 reasons why he believes they lost the election.
Arrogance and smugness emanate from Victoria – they always will. Oh, wait, that’s acceptance, meaning I see it as inevitable. Crap! Why did I even bother voting?
Another thing damaging the unwashed masses’ grasp on giving a shit is the media – which completely laid a steamer in its punditry leading up to the election.
How could so many observers be so wrong? Arrogance. They believed their particular spin and focus would win the day. The media believes it is what elects people; and in a way that is true.
In his 10 reasons for NDP failure, Bennett took a funny swipe at the media.
“Media, like horses, tends to suffer from herd mentality, except a few,” he wrote.
Surely there are Lower Mainland journalists frothing at the corners of their gin holes over that comment and some will be madly writing about how crazy old Kootenay Bill is at it again! Foam foam foam.
Sometimes people just need to take a step back and get off their high horses. If you don’t have humour, you have bitterness and anger and you’re left in a dead end wasteland.
Kind of like exactly where we are now – as our electoral system is failing worse than the NDP did in an election that was theirs for the taking.
This election must be seen, by Liberals and NDP both, as the end to the ‘old way’ of operating in Victoria. Arrogance stemming from over-zealous party allegiances must be tamped down.
Newer, better representation of the people of the ridings of this province must become the priority.
Victoria: De-party yourself – cast aside your limiting and cumbersome Liberal and NDP wrappings and govern with wisdom and fairness.
Lose the outdated allegiances to bought-and-sold corporations of legislation and make your riding your chief and only focus. Until that happens and it is obvious, voters will continue to shun the system in place and the wonk that has burrowed deeply within our current electoral system, will grow worse and worse.
It is time to fight the apathy or it will crush us. I’d bet big money on it.
Oh yeah, and legalize weed you dizzy noodles!
****
To all the candidates who showed courage and commitment in running for office, I salute you.
And congratulations to Norm Macdonald and Bill Bennett.
e-KNOW
