The provincial election only became official on Monday, but the opening salvos of the campaign are already being fired in Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater.
Last week, the CBC broke the story that Athabasca University had made donations to the Progressive Conservative party between 2006 and 2008 in the form of AU board members and staff attending PC fundraising dinners and golf tournaments (which the university then reimbursed them for).
Almost as soon as AU and the PC Party began explaining themselves, the opposition parties jumped on the issue with the Wildrose Alliance circulating a robo-call (featuring candidate Travis Olson) to inform local voters of the news.
Opposition parties like Wildrose and the NDP have a responsibility to voters to hold the governing party accountable and ask the tough questions voters don’t have the opportunity to ask on a daily basis. Were the scenario reversed, the PC Party would surely do the same.
But election campaigns — and politics in general — so often become mired in mudslinging and finger pointing. With a new campaign upon us, here’s hoping that the parties and their local representatives stick to the issues, debate with professionalism and keep their focus where it belongs; creating the best possible future for our province.
