Election 2021: The Focus on Process

I actually hate modern election campaigns. I have for quite some time. 

I am old enough to remember when election campaigns were about policies and no one was trying to parse what the release of this advertizement or the fact that a party leader was insulating himself by having press conferences in empty bowling allies meant to the election. In those elections the leaders had to know their party platform backwards, forwards, up and down because they would be questioned on them relentlessly.

That is no longer the case. No longer do we see real debate on what the parties are promising. No longer is the news talking about those policies. This could be because political parties have shown that their promises are not worth much but it is also because most political journalists are political operative wannabes. Here is a hint for all of those journalists who play at political strategist: if you were any good at it a political party would hire you. They are always looking for talented people.

I know that I am guilty of spending way too much time on process myself when I write these posts. That is because I know the difference between the policy platforms because I have read them. As well, the few people who actually read this blog have probably read them too so me talking about them would be kind of pointless.

However, let's look at them anyway.

The Liberal platform is more of the same. It essentially promises to build on what the government has been doing for the last 6 years, once we put the pandemic behind us. It is very detailed. They pack alot of information into its 80+ pages.

The Conservative platform is less precise and less detailed. Several of its key planks are what I would call gimmicks, the GST holiday being the best example. The other planks are just watered down versions of what the Liberals promise to do. It is true I am biased but really there is not much there.

The NDP platform is a typical NDP platform. Alot of good ideas but no mention of how they would implement them. 

The other platforms do not really matter because they have no chance of winning a significant number of seats, although I will say that the PPC platform is a piece of work. (And not in a good way).

Through all of this it is up to the political parties themselves to push their platforms as best they can. Through advertizing and through the local campaigns and local media, which is much less infested with political operative wannabes. 

I have detected a general decline in the living conditions of ordinary people. They have detected the decline as well because some of them have decided to do some rather extreme, but wrong headed things to reverse it, including voting for Brexit and Donald Trump. In both cases people actually harmed themselves more. The reason for this is because election campaigns in particular and politics in general has become less about policies and ideas and more about personalities, political strategy and process. Democracy and society are diminished as a result.