To the Editor,
According to biblical scriptures, Jesus was in the wilderness with no food nor water for 40 days and 40 nights, and had to resist serious temptations from Satan. Believers honour that period by giving up some of life’s pleasures and indulgences for Lent, the 40 days and 40 nights preceding Easter.
Canada’s Governor-General dissolved Parliament and issued the federal election writ on Sept. 11, for the grand event that will take place on Oct. 21 — kicking off an official campaign of 40 days and 40 nights.
We, The Great Unwashed will be officially bombarded for 40 days and 40 nights with pledges to tempt us into giving our vote for a party to lead us out of the so-called wilderness, and into prosperity in the Promised Land of a better Canada. More than one Satan will tempt voters — pesky little devils wearing different colours representing their parties, with each one peddling bigger and more expensive promises than those which other pesky little devils have to offer.
Hopefully, most of us are sensible enough to realize that promises will always be made in every campaign, but there is never a guarantee that any of those pledges will ever be kept.
Television commentators will be like the devils’ imps; flying hither, thither and yon to thrust microphones into faces of the candidates, and hoping someone says something controversial enough to make the headlines on the main newscast later that day. Of course, any perceived verbal or policy slip-up or faux-pas along the way will be discussed ad nauseam on social media, on the internet, on 24/7 television and radio news. Candidates will try to manipulate the electorate with declarations of hopes and fears, but voters have myriad opportunities to sift the wheat from the chaff, the fly-droppings from the pepper, and the truth from the lies, to decide which party they deem best equipped to lead Canada from the so-called wilderness. Only one thing is absolutely certain in this polarized democracy of ours, that when the results are declared after 40 days and 40 nights of campaigning, 100 percent of the Canadian electorate will declare that 50 percent of Canadians have lost their minds.
Bernie Smith,
Parksville