Editorial

Smorgasbord

The good thing about the federal election campaign is that there are a lot of candidates in this riding. What’s even better is that two of them are running explicitly to stir up interest among younger voters.
In a riding that largely snored through the last two or three federal elections, this is an encouraging development. Will it make any difference? We’ll find out one week from now.
The two ‘youth’ candidates seem to be content to rely more on the Internet to get the word out than in traditional campaigning. So don’t expect to see Dylan Richards of the Green Party or independent Shawn Reimer knocking on your door or putting up signs by the road.
Again, the proof is in the polling, but if either of them does manage to divert significant numbers of votes, it will mark something new and important in election campaigning. They’ll have shown that online is where it’s at, and you don’t really have to get out and press the flesh – or speak in public – to have an impact. If the thousands of people who don’t normally vote are sitting in front of their computers – why not try to reach out to them there?
Well, it’s an experiment, but with only around 40 per cent voter turnout for the last federal election in the Fort McMurray – Athabasca riding, it’s certainly worth a try.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t known at the time of this writing how many of the candidates showed up at the Oct. 7 forum in Slave Lake. Indications last week were that it wouldn’t be many.


Are things getting worse?
Things are getting worse, people are saying around town. Things like that never used to happen.
The reference was to the episode in which the driver of a stolen truck rammed a police car, drove over a gas pump and rolled the truck in somebody’s yard.
Yet we read that nationally, crime is down. It’s tough to say whether things really are getting crazier out there or not. We suspect not.
When it comes to rampages in vehicles, for example, last week’s had some novelty to it, but there have been plenty on a par with it or even more outrageous. Sometimes they have tragic results, but usually not.
A few years ago there was the apparently stressed-out oilpatch worker who, after a few drinks at a local watering hole, decided to drive the company truck through several back yards, sheds and even an industrial shop.
Then there was the fellow trying to evade police on the Wabasca highway who careened around a police barricade, endangering lives and continued to flee on four flat tires. Like something out of the movies.
We also recall the drunken joyrider who led police on a chase around town and ended up tearing across Schurter Park and getting hung up in the willows by the creek.
These are just a few examples from the past 15 years that did not end in death.
Whether or not it’s getting worse, it can be dangerous out there.