By Don Urquhart, Times-Chronicle
With the election just around the corner, it bears asking the proverbial question: Is this the year B.C. will make a difference to which party forms the next federal government? Or will we simply be the usual bystanders watching as Ontario elects our next federal government?
Don’t take this as a suggestion our vote is worthless, it’s not. It’s valuable, it’s precious and it should be exercised responsibly. The maddening problem, however, is we just all too often have a pretty good idea what party is going to form the next government before the votes are fully tallied in B.C.
The results for Ontario come pouring in mid-evening and by the time numbers from B.C. start popping up on TV, computer and phone screens, the road to victory for whichever party is often a fait accompli.
It was far worse many decades ago when a winner was typically declared before British Columbians even turned on their television sets on election night. That doesn’t happen any more thanks to more unified timing.
But come every federal election B.C. voters are a bit like wide-eyed marmots, popping their heads up in the field anxiously looking around with that age-old question tickling their minds: “Will B.C. make a difference in the outcome this time around?”
Take for instance a headline just a month ago in the Vancouver Sun: “All signs point to a fall federal election where B.C. could hold serious sway.”
“Serious sway,” oh be still my beating heart! Realistically speaking though, it’s probably nothing more than the usual pipe dream we cling to here in Canada’s most western province. Maybe it’s an insecurity thing, or maybe we’re just tired of being unappreciated or dare I say, disrespected by the east.
To be honest I don’t believe it’s ‘western alienation,’ at least not that of the more serious separatist genre. We’re all grown up now and have largely moved past our funny (or maybe I should say ‘wacky’) provincial politics of the past.
The fact that there has been a steady parade of party leaders and other lesser political beings making their way to B.C. is stoking the hope that maybe, just maybe those easterners – if they stay up late enough – might have to wait on the edge of their seats to see which direction B.C. nudges the results.
Granted they don’t make it far off the beaten path, and promise gobs of money for lots of things like a George Massey Tunnel replacement, most of which have little or nothing to do with those of us living outside the Lower Mainland.
What matters for voters and the raison d’être that federal parties have been stumping extra hard in beautiful B.C. is that there are enough swing ridings that a party’s fate on the national scale could actually be determined here. In fact, pundits are suggesting B.C. may well be the only province with any real three-way race.
I don’t know about you, but I’m taking my popcorn popper in for an overhaul before the September 20 election and keeping my fingers crossed that we get a little extra excitement on election night from B.C. playing ‘king maker’ for a change.
