Editor:
Those of you who know me know I have been working on the campaign of Banff-Cochrane Liberal candidate Pete Helfrich.
For those of you who remember me from my several decades of journalism in the Bow Valley, this comes as no surprise. I have always been left of centre, gravitating more to the centre as I’ve gotten older.
In the past few weeks of door knocking and telephoning and personal conversations with people, I have been struck by the number of local voters who have proclaimed: “I’m usually _______ but I’m voting for _________ because the _________ scares me/angers me or, worse yet, they are afraid that by not electing the ‘correct’ party we will jeopardize all of the municipal grants that keep us functioning.
Everyone, it seems, is voting against someone, not for someone.
A lot of people are saying that democracy is alive and well in Alberta this go-round, but I’m saddened by the fact that it really isn’t. When we’re not voting for the party we really want to see govern us, and voting for parties that do not align with our personal core values, we have already lost something significant. Whenever we have to ‘hold our noses’ to vote, we diminish ourselves as a democratic society.
There is a great sentiment right now that we want to ‘punish’ the Conservatives for a myriad of reasons, and yet for decades Albertans have handed that one party majority after majority, increasingly with fewer and fewer opposition members to hold them accountable.
We have come to see politicians as our ‘leaders’, when in fact they should be our followers. We collectively should hold the power in Alberta, and they are elected to do our bidding – and not just once every four years.
Our democracy in Alberta is badly broken and has been for many years. Without the strong voices of two, three and even four parties in our legislature, one party in huge majority holds unbridled power to push through their political agenda, which is not good governance.
Political agendas are in place to achieve re-election and the fulfillment of dogmatic goals. When the voices of fully half of all Albertans are shut out, there is something seriously wrong with our world.
There’s still time to get informed. The Outlook has thus far done a very good job of giving us a lot of information about these candidates, but there are limitations to what they can do. Every party has a website, every candidate is on social media. Study their platforms, look at their track records, learn about their candidates – all of them. You owe it to yourselves and the rest of us to get informed before you cast that vote.
If you’re seriously voting against someone, do you know exactly what you’re voting for?
Carol Picard,
Canmore
