Alberta’ s newest Tory boss is so far just twirling his big toe in the churning waters surrounding ‘Election Island.’ He sees the fins.
Elections to our Wildrose opposition members are like chum in the political waters.
We as Alberta residents are all watching the excitement, the silliness play out on the pages of our papers and the screens of our choosing. Right? Are We? Do we care who represents us?
The recent Metis election campaign across Alberta may have had all of the highs and lows of the recent Premier’ s election (oh, there was mud-slinging and back stories of once-suspended politicians coming back to take over their old jobs, questionable campaigning ... just like most political races). But even with all that juicy mess, less than 10 per cent of the eligible Metis voters came out to cast a ballot - locally or in the provincial race.
And while those numbers are very low even compared to most voting results, the actual number of people who voted in any recent election is still far less than you would expect ... considering the hype.
The City of Edmonton has hovered around the 33 per cent mark for voter turnout in the last two elections. That means 2 of every 3 people chose not to have a say in who runs their community. In the most recent Lac La Biche County mayoral by-election, voter turnout was 35 per cent. Again, 2 out of three don’ t vote.
Hey Wildrose, forget about churning the waters around candidates. Apparently nobody cares. Instead of trying to dismantle the government or reducing its effectiveness one bite at a time, the thing you want to take a bigger bite out of is a campaign to reduce voter apathy.
