In less than three weeks’ time, British Columbians will go to the polls to choose their government for the next four years.
Attention usually focuses on the parties and the leaders, but residents of Boundary-Similkameen also need to make the important decision of who will represent them as MLA.
When you vote, it will not be Christy Clark, Adrian Dix, John Cummins or Jane Sterk whose names appear on the ballot. Rather, it will be Sam Hancheroff, Linda Larson, Mischa Popoff, Doug Pederson and John Kwasnica.
Often voters don’t pay enough attention to the qualities of the individual candidates in their electoral districts, instead voting on leaders’ personalities or party branding.
It is true that party leaders and cabinet ministers more often set the tone in the legislature for the laws and programs that get put forward.
But even backbench MLA’s have a role to play whether by assisting individual constituents, or speaking up in caucus on behalf of the interests of their riding.
If we take current polls at face value, it appears British Columbians are looking for a change in government after 12 years of the B.C. Liberals and are prepared to take another chance on the NDP.  A lot can happen during the course of even a short campaign though, and fortunes have been known to swing dramatically between writ day and E-day. It’s not a foregone conclusion.
Here in Boundary-Similkameen all of the candidates are brand new and none have provincial government experience.
The Liberals and NDP have both chosen new candidates following unspecified “personal” matters that saw the Liberals lose sitting MLA John Slater and the NDP lose nominated candidate Marji Basso.
It is all the more important then that voters take a close look at the untested candidates before deciding who they want to represent them.
Their skills, experience and personal qualities are all important.
Governments are not supposed to show favouritism to ridings of government MLA’s, but the political reality is they often do.
It is to the credit of all the local candidates that they have agreed to participate in a series of all-candidates forums in different parts of Boundary-Similkameen.
This is an excellent opportunity for voters to hear from all the candidates so they can cast an informed ballot.
On Tuesday, April 30, there will be two such all-candidates forums in Osoyoos – one at the Seniors Centre at 1 pm. dealing with seniors’ issues, and one at 7 p.m. at the Sonora Community Centre dealing with general issues.
Too often such forums are only attended by a small number of people whose minds are already made up. We hope this won’t be the case.
We urge you to come out and hear the candidates so you can make an informed decision on who will represent Boundary-Similkameen for the next four years.