Is it just my imagination or is this Ontario election campaign on the lame side?
Is interest at best lukewarm for the Feb. 27 vote?
Maybe it’s because provincial voters are asking themselves, “didn’t we just do this?”
Yes, in June 2022, which means Progressive Conservative boss Doug Ford didn’t have to make us cast ballots until the spring of 2026, or more than a year from now.
And since he had a majority government, Ford could pretty much control that situation.
But, he mused, someone has to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump and his planned 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods entering America, and threats to make Canada the 51st state.
That would be Ford, Ford said, but he needed a new, large mandate from Ontario voters to fight that good fight.
So he called a provincial election in what’s turned out to be the snowiest winter in years.
Ontario voters have responded with an indifference so deep it threatens the apathy of 2022.
That, in case you were wondering, is when a whopping 43 per cent of eligible voters bothered to — in part because the Ontario election campaign was almost too dull for words.
So now Ford is quite willing to spend as much as $189 million of our money to drag us back to the ballot box.
Don’t believe me that this campaign is lame? How can I tell?
Let’s have a look at the two local ridings, Barrie-Innisfil and Barrie-Springwater-Oro-
Oh, it looks good now.
In BSOM, as they call it, Alex Della Ventura of the New Blue Party, Tim Grant of the Greens, Tracey Lapham of the New Democrats, Libertarian Erin Patterson, Rose Zacharias of the Liberals and incumbent Doug Downey of the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) are the candidates.
In Barrie-Innisfil, we have the NDP’s Andrew Harrigan, Dane Lee of the Liberals, the Green Party’s Stephen Ciesielski, Sam Mangiapane of New Blue, Anna Yuryeva of the Ontario Moderate Party and incumbent PC Andrea Khanjin.
Six candidates in each riding; that’s not too bad.
But except for Downey and Khanjin, who declared some time ago, along with Zacharias, there wasn’t exactly a rush to run for office.
Several threw their hats into the political ring very near the 2 p.m., Feb. 13 deadline.
Which makes one wonder how much arm-twisting was required to produce some of these candidates.
And setting up BarrieToday profiles for many of the candidates has been, to put it charitably, like pulling teeth — no doubt exacerbated by not actually having candidates until the 11th hour.
Part of this is certainly lack of interest and riding associations simply not having an individual willing to enter the political fray, let alone knock on doors in, as one candidate put it, the dead of winter.
That, and the polls saying Ontario is heading toward another PC majority at Queen's Park.
Is it even worth the effort to run, beating a dead horse, as they say?
The answer is yes, democracy matters, especially if there are any candidate debates.
Khanjin and Downey need to answer for their government’s record, just as the NDP, Greens, Liberals, New Blues and Moderates need to defend their platforms.
Meet-and-greets just don’t make the grade, in my opinion.
But profiles and face-to-faces need not be about the media.
Voters need to understand who the candidates are, what they are like, as people and politicians, even how to answer questions they didn’t know were coming, whether or not they can think on their own two feet.
Anyway, it’s just a thought or two as the election is just more than one week away.
And it looks like there’s not much appetite for change, and not much chance for some.
Look for something to spark your interest, if you can.
Bob Bruton covers city hall for BarrieToday. He’s all for elections, just not too many of them and for the wrong reasons.
