They tell me that there is a federal election on, but you couldn’t prove it by me. To paraphrase a song sung when I was young(er), “Where have all the politicians gone?”
Outside of a pamphlet or two in the mail and the very odd road or lawn sign, if one didn’t know, one would never guess that an election is less than a month away in our area.
I thought maybe we were unique so I spent a few hours last week phoning people I know in other parts of the province. They all said the same thing: electioneering is so low-key it is almost nonexistent.
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In fact, I was way ahead of some of them; I’ve seen two politicians to talk to since the writ was dropped. Most of the people I spoke to hadn’t even spotted any at a distance. What’s more, most of the people I talked to weren’t even particularly interested in an election.
They were busy seeding, or getting the garden in, or just enjoying spring.
A lot of them hadn’t bothered to watch the leaders debates in either official language because they didn’t think it would make much difference in the long run and they’d rather be outside before the spring rains and the mosquitoes make their annual appearance.
They all knew that the moderator in the French-language debate had passed out (some of them thought it was maybe in self-defence) but they didn’t know much about who said what, though there were some pretty educated guesses.
The couple of politicians I have actually talked to in this campaign told me that gun control has been raised as an issue as has voter cynicism over politics and politicians in general. The one issue I’ve found uniting people is the one of why we are having this election at all.
The Liberals are complacent, and from all accounts have reason to be. They’re keeping their leader well away from real people and the press lest there be a slip of the tongue in either official language.
What his handlers don’t seem to realize is that they’d do much better to let out the Little Man from Shawinigan; he’s the one who won voters’ hearts, not the one who is trying to be too formal and too prime ministerial.
The Tories are trying to make a comeback without using the words Tory, Conservative or Mulroney.
The NDP is running for second place, the place the Reform Party wants and where the Bloc wants to stay.
Spring can indeed be the silly season.
