BC Conservative candidates Tara Armstrong, left, and Kristina Loewen, right.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED

OPINION

I can’t recall a more stupid election than this one.

We have the NDP doing NDP things — throwing billions of dollars at our many problems without making a dent. Gone are the grounded, folksy NDP under John Horgan, we are captive to David Eby’s ideologies now and he doesn’t seem to care much about the average British Columbian.

I was encouraged by Eby at first. He’ll be a really good premier but a horrible campaigner, I thought, and I think I was correct. In that same November 2023 column, I figured BC United was toast (I’m brilliant, I know) and I predicted that despite all the good work Eby was doing on some of these files, it’s not producing enough results before the election, putting his party at risk.

To their credit, and quite unlike the governing BC Liberals before them, the NDP has no overt scandals. That’s something. But it almost makes it worse as they could be voted out on their record alone. The overdose crisis, housing prices and availability, the lawlessness on the streets, the growing homeless population, health care failures — have bloomed throughout the NDP's seven years in power. Makes it kinda hard to hear them roll out yet more new plans and spending.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

So if you’re dissatisfied with them and want them gone — and I believe this election is a referendum on the NDP and little else — the only way to depose them is to vote for the BC Conservatives, the only party with a chance (thanks again, Kevin Falcon). Unfortunately, they are led by John Rustad, a guy so extremely right and equally stupid, he couldn’t even keep a place in the milquetoast BC Liberal Party, as it was, in opposition.

He’s a full-on anti vaxxer. Before you write me some poorly-worded, grammatically incorrect threats, yes, that includes the hair-splitting “mandates”. If we were to have another global pandemic, this could be the guy making decisions. He has embraced the conspiracies of the interminably stupid. He doesn’t believe in climate change and doesn’t understand how it works. He is actively hostile to First Nations, despite once having been the minister responsible under Christy Clark.

He refuses to do anything about a candidate who called Palestinian children “walking, talking, breathing time bombs” and talked about the dangers of “Muslim inbreeding”.

I suspect that’s because if he starts taking hard stances on the crackpots in his party now, he’ll never stop.

He has run the most cynical campaign I’ve ever seen. He’s like Oprah on the campaign trail, just handing out prizes — YOU GET A BRIDGE, YOU GET A BRIDGE!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the conservative option in BC is promising to spend more money than the NDP.

And I suppose people believe them — ? — because they are leading in some polls.

This is where I once again play my favourite record, because you can draw a direct line between this Rustad-Conservative snow job and the steep decline of journalism.

Ten years ago, no candidate would have considered skating through an election by avoiding interviews with every reporter in town and every all candidates forum. Yet here we are.

Kristina Loewen is likely to win Kelowna-Centre. She has compared anti vaxxers to holocaust-era Jews, a Max Bernier-loving People’s Party of Canada supporter and thinks the essential oils she sells are effective medicine. Does she still believe these things? I can’t tell you that because she won’t answer questions from anyone. She’s a coward. She’s not even elected and she’s already ducking accountability.

Tara Armstrong is likely to win Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream. She was more diligent at cleaning up her views of social media. What does she believe? Couldn’t tell you. Same with Macklin McCall in Kelowna-Peachland. Stop me when you see the pattern. (To be fair, NDP candidate Krystal Smith has also been absent for every event for a second campaign in a row, but that's a product of hopeless candidates, a different issue).

Maybe you think I am making too much of their refusal to be vetted by journalists. Perhaps you think this is self-serving.

No, this is basic democracy. The candidates will argue they needn’t deal with the media because they are knocking on doors, going straight to the source. Indeed McCall knocked on my own door almost a year ago. It’s easy to convince people of something if they don’t have information and that's what they are counting on. That’s what people often miss, overlook or misunderstand about the role of journalism.

Conservatives in general and everywhere have been effective of late in demonizing reporters but don’t believe the hype. Journalists are nothing more than regular citizens with information, a collection of receipts and an active role in protecting the basic tenets of a liberal democracy.

We are paid to pay attention to current events, jealously protect facts, explain complex subjects and hold people accountable. We’re the referees in the public square, ready to blow the whistle on untruths, lies, obfuscation and other fouls.

Most importantly, we’re not on anyone's team (or shouldn't be). We have no dogs in these fights. We all have different interpretations of our missions, but that’s a feature of diversity, not a bug. Chambers of commerce and other community organizations do a great public service in hosting all candidates forums but they obviously have biases skewed to business issues, even if they borrow journalists to moderate their forums.

Journalists have no such biases. That’s their place in society, whether they are covering a murder sentencing, a new bylaw or a provincial election. They are observers.

People confuse our fervour for accountability for a dog-pile on a candidate or party. Those people either just don’t understand how it works or they have a vested interest in making that claim.

I see these silhouette candidates like rats, hiding in the shadows, expecting to wait out the storm and emerge victorious to feed on the spoils. How they will face all the constituents they cheated is beyond me but I promise I won’t forget and if they succeed, I will haunt them like bad BO.

I’ve been shouting from the rooftops for more than a year about why the loss of so many news organizations, so many journalists, so many business models to keep it going, is going to cost you more than you thought.

That’s because it's not about journalism, it's about democracy.

The two are inseparable. When you see democracy failing like this, that’s why.

If that concerns you, I suggest you should support local news. Sign up for our newsletter here.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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