Editorial_tired

Jeff Green | Jan 12, 2006

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I'm tired, oh so tired

Editorial by JeffGreen

Is it just me, or has this two-stage election already lost its momentum?

When the campaign began in early December it seemed to generate a surprising degree of interest. There was a quite a bit of jockeying going on over new policy directions by the party leaders, and the “Quebec question” was being raised. After the second week of December, however, the Christmas bustle took over, and the election took a back seat to egg nog and shortbread cookies.

It was when the party leaders and spin doctors got back at it before New Year’s, railing about income trusts, (whatever they are), the stock market, the RCMP and the Finance department that I began to lose interest.

The so-called ‘income trust scandal’ is kind of nebulous; it is only a potential scandal, the RCMP have not yet determined if any wrongdoing took place. Besides, we already knew the Liberals were corrupt, isn’t that what the opposition parties were counting on when they brought the government down?

Since New Year’s the campaign has continued to deteriorate. The election campaign was over a month old when the leaders held the so-called crucial debates early this week. By this time most Canadians were certainly tired of seeing those four faces on TV screens.

We’ve developed a tolerance for watching reruns on TV in this culture, but there is a limit. I’d sooner watch a Gilligan’s Island rerun than the Paul, Stephen, Gilles, and Jack show, once again. These guys weren’t exactly compelling the first time we saw them, 18 months ago. They were downright dismal this week.

My belief is that the electorate has responded to Liberal corruption, which we have known about for years, and to Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party’s smart campaign in early December.

I just wonder if another two weeks of frantic pronouncements, boring attack ads that use extreme close ups of opponents’ faces, endless comments by pundits, and probes of average Canadians won’t turn everyone off the entire exercise.

I’m not one to shirk my democratic responsibility to vote, but this campaign is testing my resolve.

It’s fortunate that we don’t actually have to vote for any of the four party leaders, we can focus on our local campaign.

There are seven candidates running for election in this riding; representing the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, The Greens, The Canadian Action Party, the Marijuana Party and the Progressive Canadian Party.

Most of them are anything but professional politicians, but they are running in order to promote ideas and be part of the political process. They are participating in many events in the final three weeks of the campaigning, including two meetings sponsored by the Frontenac News. We will also be conducting interviews with most or all of them. These people deserve our attention, even though the National Campaign has become unbearably tiresome. -JG