Voters pay the price for election trail outrage
We woke up Tuesday to a very direct message from Canadian voters: nobody in Ottawa has earned enough of the public’s trust to form a majority government. Peterborough-Kawartha remained a bellwether riding, reflecting the national mood by voting the Liberals back in, with some hesitation.
Whatever shape this new parliament takes, it’s clear that nothing is going to get done without putting aside partisan attacks and focusing on what’s best for all Canadians, not on what’s best for the right or the left or the middle.
Yes, this is an unrealistic expectation after an angry, bitter campaign. Can our elected officials, who spent the last several weeks doing their best to paint one another as the worst possible thing for Canadians, find a way to work together?
There is no denying how ugly things got during this campaign.
Locally, as with previous Peterborough campaigns, there were efforts made to influence the vote via the media. The Examiner received numerous “tips” about the candidates. Most were pretty ham-handed. Some had merit.
A complaint about photos of a candidate partying in a limousine was newsworthy. Any breaking of the law by someone running for office, historical or otherwise, is news. Another candidate scrubbed her social media presence after winning the nomination. Not a shocker, to anyone who’s been on social media in Peterborough for the past decade. Again, it’s news, as was the rumour, explored and explained by The Examiner, about a barroom meeting between the Green and Conservative candidates.
Other “tips” about our candidates were not so newsworthy. These tended to allege corruption, illegal status, criminal intent or even more farfetched conspiracy theories. Even more, such ideas were being spread around the community as the campaign unfolded.
This sort of thing is expected during a campaign, but this year saw it become far more vitriolic and venomous. The divide between “CONs” and “Libtards,” slurs we repeat here with reservations, was played out on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook and on Reddit.
And we heard about it here. Readers accused The Examiner of being pro-Liberal, due to the Liberal proposal to provide federal funding for legacy media, and to columns written by some of our contributors. Others accused us of being in the Conservatives’ pocket after their local candidate wrote guest columns during the campaign — an option open to every candidate, but one that only he chose to exercise.
Most kept it to social media, but some called the newsroom to vent. And it wasn’t pretty.
Journalists have thick skins — it’s a must in this business — but that only goes so far. Some of the insults hurled at reporters, particularly the women who work in this newsroom, are unforgivable. The candidates whose supporters openly and unapologetically weaponize outrage, anger and vehemence owe it to Canadians to make it clear that they don’t condone it, and make it clear as often as they can.
In fact, everyone in politics owes it to Peterborough to speak out against partisan division, to step away from the one-or-the-other mentality that has taken over politics, and to make it clear that the people elected to serve us must represent the Peterborough we love — a caring, compassionate community of good people. We’re a bellwether riding for a reason, after all. We’re the heart of Canada.