Right in the centre - Election fever

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Published on Thursday, August 13, 2015

By Ken Waddell

The Neepawa Banner

With the United States election nomination process well underway, an election in Canada and an election in Manitoba next spring, we are in an election fever wave.

I have been involved in elections in one way or another for all of my adult life. It started in high school, accelerated in university and then carried on from there. I have been involved in all four levels of government including school board, municipal, provincial and federal politics.

A number of years ago, a political advisor met with a local constituency board. He advised the group that, “People only think about politics about seven seconds a day on average between elections. During an election, it goes up to eight seconds.” He was serious, claiming that there was research to prove the point. Considering that the majority of people hardly think about politics at all, it may well be an accurate reflection of the amount of time people actually think about politics.

It’s no wonder that politics is seen by many as a series of short spurts or sound bites of information. Donald Trump shrugs his shoulders and his approval rating goes up. Why? Because most people feel the same way about politics. They shrug their shoulders and it either means they don’t care or they don’t think anything will change. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair glares at the camera and people assume he’s angry. Actually he may not be angry, it may just be the way he looks. People look at Steven Harper smiling and they think he’s up to no good. These are very shallow views and it’s unfortunate that people view politics that way. Everything is about politics. I have often used this story to illustrate that point. 

A person may say they don’t care about politics. I then ask them if they live in a town, city or in the country. Most answer “In a city.” I then ask, “Do you live in a house on a street?” Most answer. “Yes.” Then I ask, “Does it have a sidewalk on your side of the street or both sides?” The answer often comes back “On the other side of the street.” Then I say, “Well, someone made a political decision somewhere to only build sidewalks on one side of the street. That decision may have been made 50 years ago, but it was a political decision.”

Politics matter and we should all be involved in politics. Many times people have said, “We shouldn’t talk about politics or religion.” I say it would be pretty quiet if that were the case as there is only politics or religion. Politics covers our relationships with mankind, with each other and religion covers our relationship with God. And they intertwine, trust me!

Who the United States elects as the next president will affect that country directly but also us and the whole world. Right now people want a simple approach and Donald Trump clearly outlines simple approaches. Bomb the terrorists, build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants, cut the size of government, run it like a business. Trump appeals to those who only want to think about politics for seven seconds a day. Usually, politicians, who are largely lawyers, have been well trained to make things drag out, to last forever. They get paid better that way. They are reinforced by teachers and professors who turn to politics. Their main method of action is to talk for an hour, take a breath and talk for another hour. Businessmen don’t have the time or patience for that stuff, they make decisions and live with those decisions.

At all levels of government in Canada, there is a stagnation that is stifling. Town councils can go for months or even years and not make decision. Neepawa council is a case in point. There hasn’t been a significant decision in Neepawa since the installation of the raw water line a few years ago and the purchase of the CN property, which happened in 2012. Three years is a long time to go without a significant decision.

There have been a few big impact decisions at the federal level. At the Manitoba provincial level, there has only been glacier-like, creeping decisions and that is to increase taxation and public service unionized jobs. At the school board level, all the decision making is done by education department bureaucrats.