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Still time for an educated vote
All the candidates at our provincial election forum Monday night at Trinity United Church (see our page 9 story and Barris Beat for more on that), were very kind to thank us for hosting the evening, and for attracting a bigger crowd than they had seen anywhere else on the campaign trail. This must be faint praise indeed, because we ourselves were quite disappointed at the turnout. Only a hundred or so souls showed up on a pretty balmy evening to hear what the candidates had to say. And judging from the buttons many of them were wearing, considerably fewer than that had actually come to help them decide where to cast their vote.
Giving the rest the benefit of the doubt, let’s generously say that 80 Uxbridge citizens took advantage of this one and only opportunity to meet and question the people who are vying to represent them for the next four years at Queen’s Park. 80 out of at least 10,000 eligible to mark their “X” on Oct. 6 (or before, as more and more of us are doing in the advance polls).
It’s simply not believable that the other 99% of the Uxbridge electorate has already decided which way they’re going to vote. In fact, based on past elections, a fairly large proportion of them aren’t even going to bother. Only once every four years do they get a chance to exercise an influence on who’s going to help spend a very large proportion of their tax dollar, but they can’t even muster up the physical and intellectual energy to first make an informed choice on which candidate to support, and then to actually go cast their ballot.
Although one candidate, Libertarian Blaize Barnicoat, failed to attend after saying she’d be here (the first time that’s happened in six years of holding these forums at all governmental levels), the other five candidates went to considerable trouble to prepare for the debate, and then took valuable hours away from door-knocking to be here. And for 80 people? If we were them, we’d start to doubt the effectiveness of this way of reaching the electorate.
We hope we’re wrong about Uxbridge voters this time, that perhaps 75 or 80 per cent of you are actually planning a trip to the voting booth next Thursday. If so, it may be that many of you are still undecided about whom to support. And if so, the opportunity to make a fully informed decision is only a mouse click away. All of the parties, indeed all of the local candidates, have web sites which will provide full details on the candidate’s background, and where he or she stands on all the issues that matter to you. We also feel confident in saying that despite the lateness of the campaign, any one of the candidates would be delighted to talk to you personally - face-to-face, on the phone or by e-mail - about how they and their colleagues are the ideal ones to represent you and your family in the legislature.
If you can’t get through, call us here at the Cosmos and we’ll help you find out what you need to know. That’s why we sponsor these electoral forums in the first place. But we have an uneasy feeling that we didn’t quite reach everybody.
July 14, 2011
