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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Capital News
CAPITAL NEWS
OPINION
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The Capital News is a division of Black Press, at 2495 Enterprise Way, Kelowna, B.C. V1X 7K2
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CLASSIFIEDS
W OUR VIEW
Constant polling a voting detriment
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t was the lead paragraph on the lead story of Tuesday’s edition of the Globe & Mail: “You may know that the polls show the Conservatives about 10 points ahead of the Liberals in this federal election campaign.” Yet another shining example of why public polls should be outlawed during election campaigns. In the media savvy world of today, election campaign polls have gone from being a way for political parties internally to
gain insight on how they are faring, to becoming an influential tool to swing public opinion that may or may not be completely accurate. What polling has done today is largely serve as a convincing argument as to why Canadians are voting in less and less numbers. If we are so sure of ourselves about how the election is going to turn out, why bother to vote? The Globe’s article was intended as set-up for Tuesday’s first televised debate for the na-
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tional party leaders, but the constant polling numbers reinforce why many people may tune out the leaders. What’s the point? The polls already tell us we are headed to either a Conservative minority or majority government. It’s no wonder the French language debate day was moved so as not to conflict with Game One of the NHL playoff series between Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins. That’s something people in Quebec are really interested in because the
outcome of that series is a crapshoot, it could swing either way. Too bad we can’t say the same about our federal election. Elections are supposed to be about uncertainty, about candidates out there beating the stump for our votes. Instead, pollsters are doing the ground work for the parties by canvassing public opinion constantly. It would heighten the interest in our elections if we all simply replied, “None of your business,” and hung up whenever a polling agency calls.
Sound off
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FRIDAY’S QUESTION:
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Would you like to see the national party leaders spend more time in this election campaign discussing the future of our health care system and how it will be funded?
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YES
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NO
38%
UNDECIDED
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WEDNESDAY’S QUESTION:
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Will polling results over the course of this federal election campaign influence who you will vote for? See editorial above.
To register your opinion on the Sound Off question, go to www.kelownacapnews.com or call 250-979-7303. Results will be tabulated until 2 p.m. Thursday.
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W IDENTITY CRISIS
B.C. can’t decide if we’re northern USA or western Alberta To the editor: As I was doing my usual morning dog walk around the baseball fields near Recreation Avenue, I noticed the U.S. flag flying on one of the light poles. I looked around but the Canadian flag was nowhere to be seen. It was there over a year ago. I couldn’t help but think about how a odd this was since in these past few years, the Conservative minority government has pushed ahead with essentially selling out to the U.S.
Whether it is matters of security, trade, energy, agriculture, health, labour—you name it, the Conservatives are adopting U.S. standards and policies to the detriment of Canadians. You should know that a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for the U.S. Heck, they might as well just annex us now. I, for one, do not want to be so tied to the U.S. when their economy comes crashing down in the coming year. I have also never seen a B.C. flag
but I am not surprised by this. Actually I’m surprised there isn’t an Alberta flag there, since as someone I know so succinctly put it, Kelowna is a mini Alberta. This should concern you since Albertans don’t care for their environment. Heck, why do they come here? Because they are destroying their own environment. You just have to look at the tar sands ecological disaster. You should know that a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for the destruction of the environment, and the
concomitant myth that our economy is actually doing well when it isn’t. If only we could be so wise as to always remember that without an environment, there is no economy. But I forget, there is a great lack of wisdom in the populace, especially when they put hockey above politics, when the lives of celebrities are revered above those in our community who work for progressive social change. Once again the following saying rings so true: What goes around
comes around. I hope all of you have your gardens in with the continuing rising food prices. Wilma van der Veen, Kelowna
ALISTAIR WATERS’ COLUMN WILL RETURN SOON