There were more than a few negative comments on social media last week following M.P. Cathy McLeod's announcement of federal funding to help build a children's splashpark in Clearwater.
With the announcement made only a short time before the start of the official election period, such criticisms should be expected.
The overall consensus in the community seems to be that people are grateful for the work that went into making the grant available, especially by the local volunteers.
Local residents are also, however, also somewhat cynical about the timing.
Sorry folks, but that's the way the game is played. Politicians of every party always bring out the goody bag just before the election.
How many times were announcements made about funding for Clearwater's new hospital before it was finally built?
What is not acceptable, however, is those who say, “All politicians are crooks and I won't vote for any of them.”
Working for the newspaper has brought this reporter into close contact with many politicians of all different stripes over the years.
They might have had a variety of points of view and a range of abilities, but one common factor in all of them has been a strong desire to do things for the public good.
All are constrained in the good they can do by the system they operate within.
If that system is inadequate, it's largely because we, the citizens of Canada, have not made it a priority to improve it.
From time to time we hear calls for replacing or supplementing our first-past-the-post electoral system with proportional representation. Others call for more direct democracy. This reporter has written editorials calling for weighted voting (See “Gaming the Vote” by William Poundstone).
The point is we can't blame politicians for the shortcomings of a flawed system if we, ourselves, are not prepared to do something about fixing that system.
And those who throw up their hands and refuse to vote, or even participate, truly deserve whatever negative outcomes their indifference brings to them.
Unfortunately, the rest of us have to share the cost of that indifference as well.