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Just hold your nose and vote

A recent political cartoon caught my eye. It depicted an outhouse with the instructions to hold your nose and do your business. Then it showed a voting booth and advised ‘same procedure’.
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A recent political cartoon caught my eye. It depicted an outhouse with the instructions to hold your nose and do your business. Then it showed a voting booth and advised ‘same procedure’.

How very, very true that is.

If an election were to be held in British Columbia right now, I honestly do not know which way I would vote. Same true federally, and that is a question I’ll have to answer this fall. I just don’t know.

Every single party has major flaws, either with leadership (or lack thereof) or ideology or both.

And the thing that makes the decision no easier is that rather coming up with new ideas or addressing the sins of the past, political parties would rather point fingers at each other, or stoke fears and prejudice, rather than address real issues.

So I am torn about upcoming elections.

Not so the people of Alberta. Although the gap narrowed considerably as the campaign wore on, the United Conservative Party defeated the Alberta NDP soundly in this week’s election and will form a majority government.

However, it begins under a cloud of scandal. While many Albertan voters have been very quick to shriek in outrage at the SNC Lavalin affair engulfing the Trudeau government, they apparently have a great deal of ability to hold their noses and ignore the scandal surrounding newly elected Premier Jason Kenney himself.

It’s called the kamikaze scandal and it had its beginnings in Kenney’s successful campaign to unite Alberta’s right leaning parties, and of course, emerge as the new party’s leader. Basically, the allegations are that Kenney’s team coordinated another candidate to run alongside Kenney against his rival for the leadership, the Wildrose Party’s Brian Jean. The candidate, one Jeff Callaway’s, role was to say a lot of nasty things about Mr. Jean, leaving Kenney to take the high road. He would never say anything so uncouth! Perish the thought! Callaway was the kamikaze candidate, falling on his sword, so to speak, to further Kenney’s campaign.

Callaway stepped down before the end of the leadership campaign and endorsed Kenney.

However, the suggestion is that there was careful coordination going on between Kenney and Callaway. And the RCMP has now taken over the investigation of irregular political contributions to Callaway’s campaign, possibly flowing from Kenney’s people in his campaign.

It’s all a mess that a new Premier doesn’t need, and Kenney is doing his best to brush it off with vigorous denial, saying even if there were improper donations or collusion, he knew nothing about it. We’ll see how that works out for him.

In any event, questions about his character were not apparently a problem for Alberta voters, who eagerly look forward to Kenney going to war on their behalf with Prime Minister Trudeau (whose character does matter). They look forward to the carbon tax being repealed, as well as any other NDP-instigated climate measures. They look forward to oil field investors returning in droves, and to Kenney turning off the oil taps to B.C. if the pipeline opposition continues.

In other words, Alberta is in a fighting mood and have just elected a Premier they hope will stick it to a lot of folks they blame for the ills that have befallen the once wealthy province.

Kenney talked very big on the campaign trail. Now let’s see how long Albertans give him before they begin blaming him. Will they give him the same time they gave Rachel Notley?



Carolyn Grant

About the Author: Carolyn Grant

I have been with the Kimberley Bulletin since 2001 and have enjoyed every moment of it.
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