SOME POST BC PROVINCIAL ELECTION THOUGHTS (originally shared to the 95EH book face page)
I tried watching some of the live election coverage last night before bed, but I can only listen to TV talking-heads talk about politics for so long. Besides, it's usually better to wait and look at the almost final numbers the next day with a morning coffee & one's own thoughts — especially when things were already looking last night to be heading towards a majority government formed with less than 50% of votes cast (in an election with an estimated voter turnout of around 48%).
My first hope is that Kimberley and Cranbrook now having two MLAs who are part of the governing majority party will see some needed benefits in our communities (especially in areas that benefit the many and not just the few, as those are the needs that deserve the most attention in our communities, imho).
And I hope EVERYONE who blamed the previous government for everything they didn't like about the current provincial/national/global economic situation will continue to hold the next government just as accountable for our always-increasing living costs, stagnant wages, and inadequate funding for important services that everyone values having access to as part of our weakening social contract (while growing income inequality and the concentration of power that comes with it continue to go largely unchecked).
As I've mentioned before, the thing I find most frustrating about the current political situation (which is happening everywhere) is how stubbornly tribal people are about everything. Everything one side does is evil and everything their side does is unimpeachable. And instead of acting like adults and just getting to work on getting promised things done (and holding people accountable consistently)… politicians just constantly try to convince us that everything the other side does is completely unsupportable and the only way to ever get anything done is to first give their side 100% control.
And then we keep doing this "first past the post" election system where the math is constantly working against truly representing what the overall population of an area is most interested in seeing seated in the legislature to make A LOT of very important decisions for the next FOUR years (decisions that have a very serious impact on all of our very different but also interconnected lives).
First Past The Post helps set the table for "my team" vs "your team" politics (which is inherently divisive and has gotten overtly toxic), while also creating ongoing apathy towards taking part in the voting process altogether (especially if you fall into the demographic that constantly gets asked to vote "strategically" instead of voting for whoever you actually prefer to best represent your values).
(chart borrowed from this REDDIT thread)
This is not a new feeling for myself.
I grew up in rural Alberta (and lived in Edmonton as a voting adult for a handful of years). I lived in England as a non-voting resident during the rise of Brexit. I've recently passed the 10-year mark of living in Kimberley. I'm an elder millennial who has always dabbled in paying attention to what's going on & what's been going on (to the best of my abilities / availability).
Politics and elections often disappoint me (some more than others).
But I think it's great that Emily Lowan won her seat (more politicians like that please) — I look forward to seeing her viewpoint/energy getting more prominently featured at the legislature over someone like Dallas Brodie, who was thankfully voted out — and I think a lot of us can agree that this latest BC Provincial Election was something that not many people wanted anything to do with (and it sure was politically foolish for the BC NDP to have called the snap election when they did, which sadly felt like quite the foolish gamble right from the start, not sure which tea leaves they were consulting).
So here's hoping there will be no more political foolishness to worry about from the new party put in charge of the province (and I say that fully aware of the "political foolishness" already seen from the BC CONS first few years of existence) and/or: <please insert your list of genuine concerns here (as there are a lot of serious things to be genuinely concerned about)>
As for this 95EH Facebook account, I think I might experiment with bringing back "THE DAILY EH?!" on this Facebook page as a way to share some positive community happenings and/or local things of note (as I have done in the past with 95EH) — as 95EH was recently called out (temporarily) as being an example of the divisive rhetoric that happens on the local socials (when I shared where my subjective head was at going into the municipal election voting booth), so I thought it might be a nice time to remind people that 95EH has a pretty long history of sharing non-divisive things out into the community (and that stuff still counts even if anyone feels I have the wrong type of "politics" to share openly/publicly).
Anyways… cheers to anyone who bothers reading this Sunday morning post-provincial-election rambling — and here's to carrying on with all the different ways that a whole bunch of people around here try spending a lot of their time making this HWY 95/A area a pretty good place to be year-after-year (despite all the different outside factors that affect the conditions under which we all have to live/work together year-after-year) 🍻
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Jeremy // HI54LOFI
(95EH's Temp Intern)
