Now that you’ve put away your white clothes and your last summer cocktail buzz has faded, it’s time to get serious. There’s an election happening.
The extra-long campaign allowed a sort of grace period in August. Citizens felt free to ignore the inevitable while the parties eased into things with fluffy announcements and photo-ops.
But now it’s back to school for everyone and we’re seeing policy promises and platforms.
The Greens rolled out their entire platform this week. Like it or hate it, it contains bona fide new ideas and not much that’s recycled from other parties’ old campaigns.
Most parties are also now ready to talk about what they’ve got in mind.
Of course, a longer campaign has also left more time for the unpredictable to happen. Two months ago, the Syrian refugee crisis wasn’t on many people’s radar politically but one photo of a boy on a beach has changed that. Real human misery even proved powerful enough to throw the normally unflappable Conservative messaging machine off its rails.
Most polls are showing a neck-and-neck race, which is exciting to see. While it’s fun to believe polls are crystal balls that can divine events yet to unfold, we encourage taking those with a grain of salt. Elections are won riding by riding. Some of the most accurate local polls are often done by the parties themselves. But those ones are usually kept under wraps.
All-candidates meetings are now being scheduled. We encourage everyone to go — especially the candidates.
It’s time to get informed because Oct. 19 is coming quicker than you think.
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