The election is history; the war of politicking involving negative ad campaigns, mudslinging, spin-doctor spinnings, rash promises, innuendoes, what-if scenarios and the like is over. Several questions may arise.
One main question might be: Who really won and what did they win? Was it the party now in power? Was it the candidates of that party? Was it the taxpayer in the trenches, those in the workforce? It’s a multi-faceted question with no real tangible answers as of yet. The follow up to that is: Will there be a real winner a little further down the road? One would hope that there would be, but who really knows?
The state of our economy may be termed as good, bad or indifferent, depending on the point of view and whose view it is. Politics, at the best of times, is a subject that most people appear to be ignorant of, and they rely on social media to be informed and kept up to date. The armchair political quarterbacks are counted in here as well. They are the ones that appear to have all the answers to the political questions. Sometimes their questions and answers don’t relate. The problem is that anybody can be a critic and take shots at politicos or issues. How many have anything in the way of action to offer the system aside from criticism? Having run for office some time ago, I can understand this.
What do we have to look forward to? The stock answer to that would be reiterating election promises and then telling the voting masses that they are on hold for now or that they are being talked about in caucus. There will be some excuse for certain things not happening as soon as they were promised. Sundry odd excuses will be offered. Everyone knows that excuses don’t get things done.
This proves once again, if we always do what we’ve always done; we’ll always get what we’ve always got. Congratulations to B.C. voters for improving the voter turnout. There was a huge jump in voters. A whole 1.6 per cent to be exact. We reached a new high of 52.3 per cent at the polls, which is up from the abysmal 51.1 per cent last time. We’ve done ourselves proud.
From time to time, I have taken potshots at Mr. Ashton. Today I must congratulate him on being elected as our MLA. However, that doesn’t change my resolve on taking potshots in the future.
For those who did get out and vote here, we can now put pressure on our MLA, Mr. Ashton, to put the hospital money where his mouth is. We’ll soon see how the hospital issue is dealt with, provided he doesn’t get relegated to the back-bench duty roster. Are you listening, Mr. Ashton?
The die is cast. You said so yourself: “I get things done.” Let’s find out how soon the rubber hits the road. As Robert Frost said: “For I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep … and miles to go before I sleep.”
Ron Barillaro
Penticton
