Author: Doug Rutherford

The first planning for a candidate forum seems to have gotten underway. Earlier this evening, I attended a meeting at the Boardroom of Nakai Theatre to begin the framework for the Arts Issues candidates forum. This was quite a popular and informative event during the last election and looks to be equally as good this time around.

This provides people within the arts community and candidates to determine who sits where on a variety of issues. The format will be a group of pre-selected questions, moderated questions, followed by questions from the floor.

There are still a few issues to firm up on this. For example, two possible dates are being considered and organizers are waiting for candidates to reply to the possible dates. April 19th is looking like the optimum date for the event. It will be held at the Old Fire Hall. I’ll provide more details as they become available.

OK. The slate seems full, or at least as far as the major parties are concerned. There’s still time before the deadline (21 days before Election Day), so we may see an independent or someone from one of the smaller parties. For example, we had candidates here for the Christian Heritage Party and Marijuana Party in the 2004 Election. Running will be:

• Larry Bagnell (LPC) – Incumbent
• Ryan Leef (CPC)
• Kevin Barr (NDP)
• John Streicker (GPC)

Now that everyone has been nominated, we can at least expect a broader variety of campaign signs. So far, the Green Party is miles ahead and the only party to have signs up. The fact that their candidate is a repeat from the last election does give them a bit of an up on the Conservatives and NDP.

In case you are curious, or your memory needs refreshing, the results of the last election were:

• Larry Bagnell (LPC) – 45.80%
• Darrel Pasloski (CPC) – 32.66%
• John Streicker (GPC) – 12.83%
• Ken Bolton (NDP) – 8.70%

(Source: Elections Canada – http://www.elections.ca/scripts/OVR2008/default.html)

So far, what are the issues? That’s a good question, since the only ones that have put forth anything in the way of a policy-related statement is the Green Party. John Streicker has called for a more respectful parliament and an increase in voter turnout.  Since nine of the provinces and territories had a higher voter turnout percentage in the 2008 election, that might not be a bad idea.

There is a lot to be said, by the way, for compulsory voting. After all, we pay a pretty cheap price for living in Canada. You really only have three civic duties. :

• Voting (which isn’t mandatory)
• Jury duty
• Filling in the census

The last one, of course, is a topic for another day.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun… although, it’s the end of March and there’s really only light in the sky until about 9:30.

Up until last Friday, the only words you heard at work involved elections. Non-confidence, economy, contempt, etc., everything related to the possibility of an election. Only two parties had even nominated candidates, and one of those was the incumbent who said he was running again. There was a huge push on to get people in place for the next week.

My Twitter account has vibrated from comments from here and there on this scandal, that candidate, this issue and coalitions past and possible.

Saturday, the writ fell (loud noise with echo in background). Related to elections, that’s about the only loud noise we’ve heard here. I’ve seen two campaign signs in the last two days and they’re both for the same candidate. I drive towards downtown from the largest populated area of Whitehorse and I head towards downtown on one of the two ways to get there. Local radio has had nothing really related other than national news and local newspapers haven’t carried much other than notice of the candidate nominations.

At lunch time, I bring up the upcoming election and the attitude has moved from nothing else to talk about to, “Oh, that’s right. That’s coming up, isn’t it?”

So far, there’s been no mention of a candidates’ debate on general issues, although there is an effort to organize one on the arts. No one has flung out one of those really juicy issues for everyone to pounce on and put their personal seal on it. In short, all’s quiet on the northern front.

I realize one party, the NDP, has yet to nominate their candidate, although this is supposed to happen tonight. Maybe, after all are present and accounted for, there may be more issues than wondering if the Leafs are going to make the playoffs or not. And, when that’s the biggest issue during an election, do we really have to ask why 40% of elibible people don’t vote….

This is the fourth day since the writ was dropped and I cannot help but notice that there isn’t quite the carnage of fallen campaigners as there was last time around.

Last election, three BC NDP candidates withdrew in a week. Two for drug related videos and one for having removed his clothing and being body painted by teenagers. Another Toronto area Conservative candidate withdrew for supposedly not being able to commit for four years, although his online blog postings about gays, women and guns may have had far more to do with it.

It is decidedly possible that potential candidates have realized that what they’ve posted on the internet in the past may come back to haunt them. The proliferation of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, has made getting your message across far easier than it was in the past. However, there has also been the history of people posting less than parliamentary comments or behaviour on social media sites, forgetting that such things, stored as they are on someone else’s server, never… ever… go away (please note that the last clause should be spoken with a dramatic echo).

If every national party runs a candidate in each of the 308 ridings, plus Bloc candidates in Quebec, as well as others of the thirty or so registered political parties in Canada do run candidates in some ridings, you are looking at about 1500 candidates running in total (given that not all ridings have nominated candidates, we do have to wait to hear exactly how many). That is approximately 1500 people, each with a past, and each who has done at least one thing that probably doesn’t sell well with the electorate. Some can probably lay claim to more than one.  It looks, this time, like riding associations have done a better vetting job than they did last election, of finding the more blatant and public of those little indiscretions and ensuring that they, or the potential candidate they are attached to, don’t see the light of day.

And maybe, just maybe, we’ll have fewer candidates falling by the wayside from self-inflicted wounds. That is, however, probably way too much to expect in a Federal election.

Well, it appears that we have the names of everyone running for the election in Yukon. We have one seat covering the whole territory, for those not aware. Also, with our small population, elections here always seem to have that touch of “Hey, I know him/her.” Note: no her this time….

Running for the Liberal Party is incumbant, Larry Bagnell. He won the seat three terms ago from NDP Louise Hardy by a small margin of votes in 2001. Green Party candidate, John Streicker, is another veteran campaigner. John, a former Yukon College employee, is an engineer and climate change specialist. The Conservative Party has a new candidate this time around, Ryan Leef. Ryan has been an ex-mountie, ex-big game outfitter, ex-corrections officer and was, up to recently, a professional MMA fighter. Since the NDP candidate won’t be official until Wednesday, I can only hint that Kevin Barr, Juno-nominated musician, and Alex Furlong, president of the Yukon Federation of Labour, are expected to be the choices for candidate.

Revision Note: Kevin Barr was nominated last night.

Well, there’s your choices and there’s more than a month to make up your minds. And, is often the case, that involves picking which one of those, “Hey, I know him’s” based on which one you think will do the best job… or not.

I’ll start this off with the comment that I do think most of the media in Canada are quite good at their jobs. I’ll also admit that some of them suck, but that’s not where I’m going with this.

My biggest complaint is that most are so tentative. Let’s talk about the “H” word. I’ve heard the process named, (i.e., hypocrisy) but no one has used the word “hypocrite.” Stephen Harper is running around using the word coalition as an evil; however, he, himself, attempted to form a coalition with the NDP and the BQ in 2004. No, there is absolutely no difference between his efforts to bring down the Paul Martin government and what Stephane Dion did in 2008.

Almost no one in the nartional media has brought much of this forward. Yes, Andrew Coyne at MacLean’s has said it’s hypocrisy. Why not just say that Stephen Harper is a hypocrite. There’s this reticence to actually hold politicians to account, hold their feet to the fire. No, I’m not saying we should brand the letter “H” into their foreheads. But, maybe we should stop calling a spade an implement for excavation and just call it a god damned shovel.

(By the way, Stephen Harper isn’t the only hypocrite in this election. He prorogued parliament to save his tail after refusing to put a stimulus package in place. He later went out and brought forward a budget that either the Liberal or NDP party could have brought forward. Complaining about running up the deficit for doing what you wanted might also bring the “H” word up in polite conversation.)

Oh, the forehead branding thing. My disapproval probably doesn’t run to repeat offenders…

“Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.”
W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.

Well, it’s election time again. This is the 4th time in recent years we’ve done this and the last few have resulted in a minority governments. Don’t think this is a complaint. A minority probably represents the most democratic of situations, where governments must work with other parties to make government work. Think of it as a second chamber of sober second thought.

The problem inherent though, is that the last government really hasn’t been that interested in dealing with the other parties. The last budget was obviously designed to force an election, although the historic and somewhat sad situation of having a government found in contempt of parliament was the actual catalyst for non-confidence. The onus for making government work in a minority situation is directly on the prime minister, so this could have been equally named a motion of non-competence. My only assumption is that the Conservatives think they will win, so forcing an election, while at the same time calling it unnecessary, may be a good idea for them.

So, we will be innundated with polls (only one of those really counts and pollsters even say that they’re next to useless), innudated with telephone calls and innundated with doorbell ringing. Everyone of those callers will be more than willing to tell you everything you need to know.

You just might want to keep a grain of salt on hand, though, to help you deal with that.