The Elephant in the Room

‘The elephant in the room’ is an expression used to refer to an overarching issue that is ignored while minor issues are debated with gusto. No one will talk about the elephant because it is assumed that nothing can be done about it, so we invest our time on the minor issues that we believe we can control while we carefully walk around the elephant.

The elephant in BC Politics is voter apathy expressed in low voter turnout. The recent by-election is a great example. Even when the Green Party had a chance to win a seat, there was only 43% turnout. This was something that should have rallied their supporters en masse as well as their detractors. But very few voters seemed to care, particularly among the younger demographic who could have turned the tide.

And this is not limited to by-elections, which are typically low turnout events. In the last provincial election there was only 52% turnout.  And many of those who voted did so out of duty and not because they believed it would make a difference.

This cannot be blamed on the voters. All the parties have beaten them down by scandals, lies and arrogance. We are at a point where the general public flips a coin to see if they will bother to go and vote for the scoundrel they distrust the least.  Even the slight rise in fortunes of the Liberal party of late has likely less to do with people trusting them again than it does with the voters not believing in any of the parties. Because we accept as fact that whoever forms government will abuse their power, we resign ourselves to the choice of evils

I have pondered this over the last year, trying to find a way to encourage the young adults to get involved and to restore public trust. I visited the Occupy camp in Vancouver and wondered how to reengage those people into our democracy when they openly mistrust and despise the political system that it has created.  So, can we talk about the elephant or is it best to not mention it? Can we really do anything to change it?

The BC Conservative Party of course says that they will bring open and honest government and they have proposed a few changes to bring it about.

·       Increasing the resources for the office of the Auditor General to help with fiscal accountability.

·       Free votes for their MLAs so that they can put their constituents first before the party.

These are some of the things that have drawn me to run for the party, but they are clearly not enough to reengage those who feel burned by the past 2 decades of abuse.

I believe I have a solution however.  I intend to change how we do politics. Not sometime after May 14^th and only if I am elected. In January I will unveil my plan and at that time, I will deliver tangible change and significant reason for hope to discouraged BC voters.  It is time to talk about the elephant!