Sometimes it is hard to take politics seriously, especially here in Ladysmith where voters have cast their federal ballots three times in two years.
As a country, we spent $600 million on an uninteresting election that made next to no change. The most costly election in Canadian history and voters did not even have an appetite for change. Imagine if politicians worked together for the sake of the country, instead of fighting to advance their own political careers — what could have been accomplished with $600 million?
We were expected to listen to parties campaign on a platform of making houses more affordable for the middle class and recovering the economy from the seemingly endless pandemic, while millions of dollars were being spent to simply talk about the issues, rather than working to solve them.
It seems the federal Liberals hoped to employ the same tactic the BC NDP did by calling a pandemic election. They hoped for a majority government, but instead, they accomplished nothing but a near-record low voter turnout.
Can we blame Canadians for sticking to the status quo though? It was not easy to get excited about election campaigns when we were distracted by the growing number of COVID-19 cases and exhausted from the last two years of living through the pandemic, being bombarded by bad news almost daily. It is quite clear no party holds all the answers or is out to make dramatic changes to improve the lives of Canadians.
Everyone knows the biggest issues facing us today; housing, climate, opioids, the pandemic and Indigenous reconciliation. Maybe if our decision makers spent more time and money making decisions we could see some progress. Instead, we watched them all try to convince us they have the solutions, but just need more power to see them come to fruition.
What a waste of resources this election was, one for the history books. But maybe, just maybe, we won’t have to go back to the polls for a fourth time any time soon.
