We are one week into the federal
election.
Do you feel the excitement building?
Other than the splash of lawn signs supporting Todd Doherty on our boulevards, not much seems to be happening locally.
Indeed, across the country, the campaign is news but not the dominant story. The leaders' debate last Thursday wasn't picked up by any of the major networks and it might have been our only chance to seem all four leaders in action in English. French language debates are scheduled for the coming weeks.
It has been a fairly ho-hum, lacklustre start to the whole thing.
Maybe that is what the Conservatives are hoping will be the case for the whole campaign. Lull the country to sleep and hope they don't wake up until after they are re-elected.
I can just see people looking at their morning newspaper on Oct. 20 with headlines reading Conservatives win every seat in Parliament and saying to themselves, "How the heck did that happen?"
Maybe a sleepy start to the whole campaign should be expected.
After all, it is hard for anyone to maintain enthusiasm for 11 weeks - especially in the summer when there are many distractions.
Or maybe the slow start is a result of the never ending campaign the Conservatives have been running since the last election. They have been using your and my money to tell us about their job creation plans, their child tax credit, and their income splitting plans - all part of their Action Plan.
Yes, I know this is government advertising and falls outside of an actual political campaign. They are justified by the argument the government is just informing the citizens of the country about the laws and changes they have made in Ottawa.
But if this intensive media campaign is truly just a communication tool - a method for the government to get the message out - then how come we don't see advertising telling us about C-51 or other bills that will have a much greater impact on the development of Canadian society?
Strange the government only wants to tell taxpayers about things it thinks are successful.
The other half of the Conservatives perpetual campaigning has been the attack ads aimed primarily at Justin Trudeau.
These have intensified over the past four or five months but they have been going on since Mr. Trudeau was elected to lead the Liberals.
The funny thing about the most recent set of ads is the contention that Mr. Trudeau is "Just not ready." Aside from the obvious word play, it does lead to a serious question: Is the contention that Mr. Trudeau not ready because his experience or his age?
The homey use of the first name and the choice of words in the commercials are designed to portray Mr. Trudeau as a young man too junior for the responsibilities of leadership. Yet, if elected, he would be 44 years old. Stephen Harper was 47 when he first became Prime Minister.
Was Stephen "just not ready" at the time? I would argue yes, but for the Conservatives to make inexperience and age a central issue of their campaign would seem to be a bit hypocritical. Indeed, in a true comparison of their prior experience, I would argue that Mr. Trudeau comes out ahead of the game.
After all, he has actually held a job he had to earn. Being a school teacher is not an easy task. On the other hand, young Stephen spent much of his time as a policy wonk for his friends and mentors.
And both of them have about the same length of time as leader of their party. Stephen had been leader of the Conservatives for just under two years when he first became Prime Minister whereas Mr. Trudeau, if elected, would have been leader for almost two and a half years.
By the way, yes, I was deliberately using Prime Minister Harper's first name.
I have been rebuked before for doing so. If it seems irksome then consider whether it is a fair tactic in the Conservative campaign messaging regarding Mr. Trudeau.
Both leaders deserve respect.
In any case, if age and experience are the true criteria by which we should choose our next government, then Mr. Mulcair has the other party leaders beat hands down. He is both older, at 61, than either Mr. Harper or Mr. Trudeau and he has experience with actually being a government minister, which is something neither of the other two has ever done.
One could even make the case that Elizabeth May, at 61, has more experience than her younger opponents but she is realistically not running to become prime minister.
Yes, our sleepy election campaign is off to a slow start but hopefully we will all wake up before it comes time to vote.
