This Oct. 15, we’ll go to the polls to choose new municipal leaders across the province.
And after that, barring any significant constitutional crises or meltdowns, we won’t have any elections here in B.C. at any level for two solid years.
The federal government, with the new Liberal-NDP confidence and supply agreement in place, is set to go to the polls in 2025, and our provincial government’s next test with the voters isn’t scheduled until 2024. Municipal elections are every four years, so that won’t come around again until 2026.
Both provincially and federally, we’ve had a number of shorter than usual terms thanks to repeated minority governments. Party leaders have spent a significant amount of their time trying to figure out how to boost their popularity in polls, and crafting short-term policies designed to hook voters.
Now the parties in power will actually have a decent amount of time in which they won’t have to worry about electioneering.
It is impossible to take polling and popularity entirely out of politics. But there’s also something to be said for a couple of years of stability.
Short, uncertain terms between elections drive short-term thinking by political leaders.
Now is the time for voters to demand their leaders actually govern. That means projects that last more than a few months, and policies that can be expected to endure.
Our ruling parties – and their opposition – have various policies on the books that might work pretty well, if they were actually implemented, carefully and with some forethought.
Now’s the time to work on getting those things done. Whether it’s the housing crisis or climate change, elder care or child care, industrial policy or inflation, we’ve got a couple of years in which voters can pressure our MPs and MLAs to take the long view.
And for once, they might actually listen.
– Black Press Media