Another Side Show is Over

The only appropriate picture I could think of for this post was a black armband and I couldn't be bothered to take or find one.

The outcome of the provincial election was pretty clear by the time I turned in last night - another 4 to 5 years of the "Liberals" and no chance of electoral reform. Today, all the pundits are examining the results and trying to explain what it all means. Since I'm not a pundit of any kind, I feel I'm on safe ground here....

The "Liberal" win means more attempts to sell off BC assets and resources. From our parks to our rivers, the government now has a mandate to pretty much do what it wants. Not even the "gas tax" was enough to defeat them. The NDP loss means that there will be no backtracking on the carbon tax and that's a good thing. I was very, very disappointed in the NDPs campaign tactic on this and I'm sure many people put their vote elsewhere because of it. Unfortunately, not a single seat was won by the Green Party despite, once again, almost 10% of the popular vote. Which bring me to the most significant loss.

The referendum question on electoral reform was defeated, overwhelmingly. I'm not sure if it was fear of the proposed system's supposed complexity or the prospect of larger ridings or the difficulty of ranking your vote....1, 2, 3, 4.... that scared people off, but it's done. My disappointment is that it won't likely surface again in the debate during my lifetime. So we go on with the composition of our legislatures not representing how the voters really feel. It was a chance to explore something different, but in the final analysis, the majority voted for the good old status quo.

Like hockey, politics is mostly an irrelevant side show in my mind. Out here in the Koots, spring is in the air, hiking and climbing season is nearing, plants are growing and there are more important things to think about. The double loss yesterday is unfortunate, but the world will continue to unfold as it will. We can go back to grassroots opposition to government dumbness where it affects us directly. The rest we might as well forget about.