Friday, October 10, 2014

Time and the Ballot Box


The Toronto electoral campaign for Mayor is now in its sixth month (or seventh -- one loses track of these things) and is simply WAY too long. Add in a gazillion debates involving (usually) three people and we have a recipe for a show that in terms of audience interest is considerably past its due date.

Why?

I believe the answer can be traced back to former Premier Mike Harris ramming amalgamation down Toronto's throat, even though Toronto citizens from the five former boroughs, via a referendum,  had soundly rejected the issue. Democracy in action, as it were.

To explore this idiocy further is beyond the scope of this week's topic, but one result is that the Premier, perhaps suffering a twinge of guilt over such an arbitrary act, allowed a greater electoral time span because of the larger campaign area.*

But a campaign of months, with seemingly endless debates? To me, overkill in spades.

Now in olden times (to use an olden phrase)** area and distance were major factors in getting out the vote, and hence the need for a greater time span for any campaign. With modern media all too pervasive, however, this argument weakens. The whole thing could be neatly compressed into a month, or even three weeks. The electorate, I'm sure, would be grateful, and would, I suspect, take a greater interest in the issues being discussed and debated.***

I am, however, mindful that I am trying to compress time, a very tricky thing with which to get involved. Just how tricky can be seen in the following quotation from Michel de Montaigne in his Essay on Time: "Time is a thing of movement, appearing like a shadow in the eternal flow and flux of matter, never remaining stable or permanent; to Time belongs the words before and after; has been and shall be, words that show at a glance that Time is evidently not a thing which IS. For it would be a great silliness and manifest falsehood to say that something IS which has not yet come into being or has already ceased to be."

Montaigne, magnificent as usual. As for the result of the upcoming election, time will tell.

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* Mike Harris never felt a twinge of guilt in his life. -- Ed.

** Middle English has a certain charm, does it not? -- Ed.

*** None of the above applies to the United States, which seems to run a perpetual election campaign and has since its foundation, with a short hiatus occurring owing to a wee tussle called the American Civil War. -- L.S.S.





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