In case you have missed it, next Monday, Nov. 7, we go to the polls here in Saskatchewan to elect our government for the next four years.
While the candidate signs on lawns around the city are a dead giveaway that an election is afoot, it is not exactly a vote which has caught the imagination of Saskatchewan people.
There are a few reasons for the lack of interest in the current vote.
To begin with there is the fact the last edition of our provincial government enacted legislation which now sets the election day every four years, and that has meant since the calendar turned to the current year politicians have been on the campaign trail.
When Premier Brad Wall and New Democratic Party leader Dwain Lingenfelter came to town, their comments had a decidedly 'vote for my party' lilt to them.
While initially standardized election terms and dates was generally thought to be a positive, taking the politics out of the decision to call a vote, it has in essence extended the pre-election rhetoric timeframe, which tends to have voters tuning out things by the time the election happens.
In the case of this election there has also been the lack of a galvanizing issue which gets people in a fervour.
It has much to do with a generally strong economy, whether we look at potash, oil and gas, or agriculture, things are good. In Yorkton we see the economic strength reflected in an active construction sector on both the residential and commercial side of things. When an economy is rolling well, the government can bask in the glow of the good times.
Even coming out of the last election things were such in terms of the economy the Saskatchewan Party simply had to manage the good times and not make a major ball fumble they would likely head into the next election without a major hurdle to overcome.
That has left this election lacking a tight focus for voters to coalesce around, for either of the major parties.
The lack of interest in the vote Monday could result in many people deciding to simply stay home, not seeing the reason to trek to the polling booth.
That, though, is not the way we should be thinking.
We should always make sure we take the time to exercise our right to freely mark a ballot.
If we doubt the importance of that right, we need only consider that this election is being held four days before Remembrance Day: the day each year we pause to honour those Canadians who died on battlefields to protect those rights and freedoms. If they could die for the rights we now enjoy, the least we can do is to exercise those rights.
So Monday we all need to go to the polls and mark an 'X' for the candidate we trust most to preserve the strong economy to the benefit of all Saskatchewan residents.
