Federal vote timing a blow to municipal politics

With a federal election taking place in the midst of province-wide municipal elections in Nova Scotia, there is little doubt that municipal issues will end up being overshadowed. Several local municipal politicians have voiced disappointment with the situation, which is bound to cause confusion with some voters and put their campaigns on the back burner in the minds of the public and the media.

Municipal election signage is being lost in a sea of federal signage and extremely important local issues are being eclipsed by visions of attack ads with puffins pooping on shoulders.

In fact, Kings County council sees it as such a problem that they endorsed having Warden Fred Whalen send a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper before the federal election call was made to ask him to reconsider his timing.

One issue is that advance municipal polls on Oct. 14 are in locations typically used as federal polling stations, and Oct. 14 is the federal election date. This is bound to be chaotic and perhaps confusing for members of the voting public and election workers alike. There are some people working in the municipal election who also have federal election commitments.

There are some people who argue that Harper doesn’t hold Nova Scotia in high regard and public statements he has made in the past seem to verify this. Is it lost on Harper that the timing of his election call could add credence to this argument?

Wasn’t it Harper who championed fixed election dates only to appear to succumb to the temptation of pulling the plug on the minority government in Ottawa when polls suggested he was well in the lead? He said it occurred to him that Parliament had become dysfunctional and that was the reason for his timing. But Parliament was no more dysfunctional when he pulled the plug than it was when his minority government took power and passed much useful legislation.

Another issue sure to stick in the craw of some local Conservative supporters is that they had absolutely no say in who would represent their party in Kings-Hants. A candidate was handpicked by Ottawa, which seems to suggest Harper had no confidence in the local party association to choose their own. Something could be seen as quite undemocratic about this.

In defense of Harper, fixed election dates seem like a good idea. There wouldn’t be any knee-jerk reactions to poll numbers and elections couldn’t be called to suit the best interests of the party or federal leader currently in power. Let’s fix federal election dates so we know when to expect them -- except, of course, when the Opposition forces one. Let’s do the same for provincial elections.

Municipal election dates are fixed now. We can expect them to take place across the province every four years in October.

We urge members of the voting public not to allow important local issues to be overshadowed or lost in the midst of the federal election. Too many people who care greatly about the communities in which they reside have put far too much time and effort into their campaigns, and we all know the best place to effect positive change is the grassroots level.