EDITORIAL
Answer the question!
One can hope Gatineau’s Board of Health will soon release an advisory, a warning, really, about the ill effects of overloading on political baffle-gab. I hope they do, having suffered through the Aylmer debate, a few days after an MRC-Pontiac wardens’ debate, and then the Municipality of Pontiac’s all-candidates debate. Whew!
The thing about talking up one issue and down the next, talking about twenty years from now – hey, a sky train to Gatineau’s big coliseum, then what-should-have-been done twenty-years ago, tomorrow it’s ten million bucks for the marina! You want more numbers?! It’s distraction . . . a cartoonist’s dream! Maybe nightmare.
Yet these public exchanges are important -- for both politicians who want to extend their reach, and for us voters who need to figure out the who, what, and why of making our choices. “Choices” is funny in this context – it seems no matter who we put into office, on whatever platform and promises, we get business-as-usual for the next four years.
When was the last time your vote seemed to make a difference in your city, province and country? Our last federal election is a text-book example.
What real choice do we have? That’s a huge question I’m not qualified to answer, but the worst choice is to try and ignore it all. Politicians take no vote as a “yes”. Not voting says “yes!” to all that’s been going on. Ready to say that?
And judging from the huge turnout for the debate, most citizens agree important issues are at stake, and that a lot of people are interested, even angry. Especially, it seems, here in Aylmer.
Apparently, the other sectors of Gatineau do not show such enthusiasm. Have they given up? Or is it they lack public, real-media which keep the issues and positions in the public eye?
The crowds at the debates “up the line” tell the same story – a real hunger for news, information, debate, positions and proposals. Obviously we aren’t getting enough, which is a big message to the city itself and the next administration. More communication, real communication! Tweets aren’t communication, nor are a billion websites. Everyone’s still hungry. What does that tell us? Look at all the letters in this edition.
One point that struck me in this campaigning is politicians’ obvious self-assurance that if they keep their mouths working, that’s a satisfactory response to any question. The blah-blah factor is over-whelming, and it won’t stop with a vote, as we see from many now in office. Dream-land, especially budget dreamland, seems to be the source of a lot of mouth-work – as Mr Duggan blurted out in the debate over a tramway, “You want to run a railroad up Aylmer Road?!”
Aylmer Road’s busy enough right now, thank you, and so are we. We are too busy except for clean, real and concise answers. So we have to keep insisting and questioning. That’s a citizen’s job.
