Parry Sound-Muskoka Election Fever

The Federal polls are becoming interesting. The hyperbole has been telling, with exaggerations of carbon tax success in other countries, mixed reviews by those in the know, and Kyoto Protocol lack of progress around the world, yet leaders and candidates continue to flog these ideas based on vastly different countries.

While I have blogged about the 2008 Federal Election debate elsewhere, I think it worth looking at what is going on locally in Parry Sound-Muskoka. Our family voted in the advance polls Oct. 3rd, and found that quite a few people had done so and many more were lined up trying to do so. The local debates have been varied in their focus, Metroland posed and posted a video featuring a creative question to candidates "if you had $10 million dollars". Rather unrealistic for our local candidates, but it did reflect their personal viewpoints, priorities and biases.

Local reporters are writing stories that border on interpretation and identification of the news and are electioneering. This must be taught to journalists, as The Toronto Star does the same thing: editorials telling us what to think, disguised as articles ("No licensed child care for majority of Canadian kids"). There is a name for this: truthiness, coined by Colbert. Reporters hint at how we should be voting, based on the information they provide about candidates and issues. The mendacity of candidates is reiterated by reporters in some bizarre tale wagging the dog(if you excuse the pun).

Such media reinforces the difference between editorials and articles. Young families facing tough economic times" seemed more of a research paper than a news article, as the Gravenhurst banner reporter sought to provide undocumented information ("rising need in emergency assistance programs") Rick Williams, the district commissioner of community services, was interviewed and his perceptions were used as back-up information to the election article. He believes that as a result of rising rent and utility costs our local families are in trouble. This may well be, but in what should be an article reporting candidate positions spent much time and column space interviewing an unelected official who may or may not have any data.

What is interesting is that a local, municipal issue, with no real data beyond one local civil servant's opinion, was used as a platform to highlight Federal party lines and responses to economic issues. It is as if the reporter came up with a story line and wrote her "Election Report 2008" article reporting on the election to fit her article. We want to know what the candidates are saying, not what a reporter has dug up. She need no justify the candidates responses. I resent being convinced by a reporter of a socioeconomic problem.

I worry about strategic voting, Parry Sound Press (owned by Metroland North Media), for example, offers a video of a respectful, calm event that included voter/candidate questions on health care. The Huntsville Forester featured a less gentle debate during which Mr. Clement was grilled on his absence from Canada during the Listeriosis crisis. If you crave more, one person has copied the CBC TV news reports of the Federal debate and broadcast them there, too. Many commented on Mr. Harper's supercilious demeanour. The Orillia Packet had something about signage wars.

The Parry Sound rally was a terrific event with both fans (not necessarily Green Party voters) and supporters of Elizabeth May in attendance. Ms. May certainly has fueled much local response by her train trip launch, visiting the whistle stops, videos proliferate the web as the electorate shares as much info and generates as much hype as possible.

The local buzz, though, revolves around tax breaks (or the lack thereof) for a new condo development and local hospital testing services that are being cut by the LHIN. These are issues that seem to take as much front page news as the election.

We have 68,577 electors (2006), and in 2004 there were 43,936 people who voted. This reflects the estimated 60+% turnout in 2006, as well as the local turnout in 2006 of 46,170.
But there is some fervour with signs popping up all over, blowin' in the cold October wind!