When it comes to election issues – federal, provincial or municipal – I like to think that I am at least relatively informed when I step into the voting booth.
I make a point of reading and listening to what the party leaders and individual candidates have to say in order to have my vote mean something. I feel privileged to live in a democratic country and I take my right to vote seriously.
I mention this because the other night I went to a local all-candidates meeting for the upcoming provincial election which was hosted by a number of the area’s environmental groups. The problem was that one of the candidates did not take part in the meeting. The BC Liberal Party candidate Greg Kyllo said that he would not take part because, in his words to the Observer, “there’s just so many different special interest groups, whether it’s health, tourism, logging, there’s just so many different areas, if we attend one special interest group, it’s going to be pretty hard to turn down all of the other ones that may look at hosting as well.”
Now Mr. Kyllo can run his campaign as he sees fit. That’s his business. But I must say that, as someone who is genuinely concerned about environmental issues, I take exception to being labelled part of a so-called special-interest group. To me there is something rather pejorative and dismissive when a politician uses the term special-interest group.
Personally, I cannot, for the life of me, see how any politician can think that the environment is not an important issue in the upcoming provincial election or any other election. The fact that an all-candidates meeting was hosted by a cross-section of local environmental groups is a moot point. If nothing, it would have given the candidates (including Mr. Kyllo) an opportunity to let voters know just where they stand when it comes to the environment.
I went to that meeting hoping to better understand where the different candidates stood on a variety of issues and I guess that brings me to my point. Just because I am genuinely concerned about the environment, I do not feel that I am a part of some sort of “special-interest” group.
I chose to live in the Shuswap for the plain and simple reason that it allows me to live and work close to so much of the beauty and natural wonder the area provides. It is because I like to sit in my boat on a warm summer’s afternoon and watch the dragonflies buzz in and out among the reeds that I worry about such things as pollution. It is because after a day’s fishing I like to close my eyes for a moment before going inside the cabin and just stand there listening to loons that I am concerned about the water quality of our lakes and streams.
One thing I do know for sure is that my hackles go up when people like the Federal Minister of Natural resources Joe Oliver refers to environmentalists as “radicals who are trying to destroy the Canadian economy.”
I do not consider myself a radical. I am but one of many voters who have real concerns, not only about the state of the economy and our health-care system, but also any number of other social issues including, yes, the environment.
In order to make the best of any situation, political or otherwise, we need to compromise, to look for some sort of middle ground. Maybe it’s time we started listening to each other instead of calling each other names, and maybe it’s time for politicians to start listening to the voting public.
After all, we vote them in. We can also vote them out.
