This will be one for the history books, one way or another.
It begins with parts of the country baking under mid-summer heat, and by the time we actually go to the polling stations on Oct. 19, it will have snowed in Winnipeg. Probably two or three times.
This will be the longest election in modern Canadian history, and one of the first in which there are three major parties, each with at least a decent chance of winning and forming a government.
The media, whether printed on paper or delivered via smartphone, will be full of the usual stories over the next 11 weeks. We’ll have the candidates who pop up and say stupid things to embarrass their own party. There will be gaffes and blunders, and endless debate over whether this or that gaffe will actually matter to the voters. There will definitely be black-and-white attack ads showing opposing politicians looking sinister, as if they might kick puppies on breaks from campaigning. There will be polls, polls by the truckload, for those who are entranced by every 0.3 per cent change in a party’s chances.
Here in the Langleys, we will have a few things that are new, besides the length of the campaign.
Langley now has two ridings for the first time in nearly a decade – Cloverdale-Langley City and Langley-Aldergrove, and we’re sharing our future politicians with Surrey and Abbotsford.
We’ve got what looks like a serious slate of candidates from all the major parties nominated across both ridings. Some of them have run for office before, but for most of them, this will be their first time trying to win over the voters.
Every election, we suggest to the voters that they do their best to stay informed, and we’ll do our best to give them the information they need to do that. We’ll all have plenty of time to do so this round.
An 11-week election campaign may be too long. But at the end of it, as we pass by the faded lawn signs, we’ll have no excuse for not having enough information to make an informed decision.
– M.C.