Electioneering

 

Today (Tuesday, April 15^th) I attended an election event. It was a “coffee with candidates” in my riding of Peterborough – Kawarthas.  It went from 9 am to 10 pm today so there is no way of knowing how many people will show up during the entire day.  Each of the candidates was there and were allowed to make a short introduction speech.  I missed the first couple of speakers but got a chance speak to one of them later.

There were tables set up around the room, one for each candidate. I tried to get to speak to at least three of the candidates. But I never got a chance to talk to the NDP candidate because she never showed up anywhere near her table and I did not know what she looked like to see if she was roaming the room.

 I next succeeded in talking with the Conservative candidate.  She is the incumbent in this riding. But there was always a large number of people wanting her attention. I tried twice but did not get a chance to talk to her. If the number of people surrounding her are any indication, she will probably win her seat back. For the Conservative party, I wanted to find out if they would, in fact, use the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to impose a law that has already been found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. If so, I think that it is the worst thing that could happen. Some of you may remember that I have written in previous blogs about my negative feelings about that section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and how it has been misused by some provinces. In the hands of the federal government, it is downright dangerous.

I moved on to the Liberal candidate.  After a short wait, I was able to talk to her about my main interests in this election: national defence; and climate change. Unlike other candidates, she had briefing papers for a number of her party’s platforms.  I started by reading a couple of these and then was able to talk to the candidate about these two subjects. Most of the discussion was about national defence. Having spent quite a bit of my working career in defence procurement, both in my military and civilian careers, I have a pretty good idea how the procurement system works. I did not ask about what the party would do, that was explained in the paper, but how they were going to do it. I got some very positive answers on that.

What’s interesting about my presence at such an event is that it is the first time I have attended any such political event.

An interesting fact about this riding is that all the party candidates are women, all five of them.

Elections are a vital part of our democracy, and we should make every effort to vote in them. But remember what you are voting for, not against.