A provincial election must be called within weeks, according to the province’s fixed-election date legislation, and the campaign rhetoric is heating up across Alberta.
It’s time for residents of Westlock and beyond to take a good, hard look at what they want out of their provincial representative and to ask the hard questions that will help tell them who will provide it.
Many candidates have so far declined to go into full campaign mode, but the tension is rising as we see the various contenders coming out of the woodwork to make their voices heard — some more so than others.
Local voters especially should pay close attention, considering how the recent retirement announcement from veteran MLA Ken Kowalski has affected the race for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock.
The veteran MLA was widely regarded as undefeatable in this riding, as is attested by his three decades of electoral victories in this area and the wide margins with which he won.
With Kowalski out of the picture, however, this election will be as important as ever for this riding. All parties will now tell you they have a good shot at securing this seat for their own caucus, but some of their claims perhaps have more credibility than others.
Ultimately, it will be up to voters to decide how this election will play out, and it is crucial that ever potential elector inform themselves about what each candidate represents to determine whether any of the candidates are worth casting a ballot for.
It may seem redundant to say this — anyone who has studied civics at the elementary-school level can tell you how important public participation is in a democratic system.
The results from the last provincial election, however, tell us that fewer than half the potential voters in this riding chose to head to the polls. Just under 12,000 voters cast ballots in 2008, out close to 27,000 potential voters. That’s well under a 50 per cent voter turnout, which is something we should all be ashamed of.
It is unclear, however, if this historically low voter turnout is a matter of people not caring who wins, people assuming Kowalski will win so voting isn’t worth their time or people deciding none of the candidates are a good choice and boycotting the whole process. That’s something candidates and voters will have to decide for themselves.
