Remember when the once buff Arnold, as the Terminator, extended his hand to a distraught woman, asking her to come with him to escape a barrage of bullets and the wrath of another human robot bent on destroying any chance of humanity for the future? Well expect the same act from many candidates in the upcoming provincial elections. They will offer themselves as the only hope for Quebec’s continued survival. Although using the Terminator as a parallel may seem absurd, there is some similarity to the election platforms of the aspiring candidates who wish to lead us into an uncertain future.
What awaits us in the future one may ask? I have a crystal ball of sorts that tells me what kind of Quebec could emerge, a version that everyone might actually like. First of all, I am not a candidate, so don’t take my word that whatever you read in this column actually makes any sense. I am just testing the grounds for my inane ability to forecast the future…
Once, many years ago, the lands of the north and of the Cree were just that, lands of the people of the tundra and taiga. On occasion, the moose would get some respect and the salmon was the king of the seas. The people who depended on living the life of freedom to hunt and fish were merely a tiny island in the sea of demographics. Come any sort of election, the most any one could hope and vote for was for our own chiefs and councillors. That often meant voting for family, but hey, back then, only a few families could lay claim to a leadership role. Then, after a few hours of voting, the chief and council got elected (or chief and family members) and the community settled back to the daily business of getting by on what a larger government would hand out.
Then, came the regional entities, for which we got to vote for someone who often didn’t come from our own community. Thus, regional elections, now commonplace, are the scope of our daily political wanderings and few of us focus on larger provincial or national elections.
Today, a whole slew of elections and promises seem to land in our mailbox and on telephone poles. Candidates who we have probably never met want our attention and our votes cast in their favour – in exchange (usually) for some silly promise.
Hey, when will a candidate ever come forth and promise a perfect sunrise, a cloudless day and glorious sunset? Perhaps, one day, some candidate will actually address the real issues at hand and carry out election promises. But, we all live on planet Earth and not in a perfect hereafter, so those promises could more often than not be considered as outright lies. You know, I always said that elections are not about politics or promises, or even trying to get something done in the 40- 60 month time frame of a political mandate. No… it’s all about getting votes.
So, when you look at all the possible candidates who are popping out of the woodwork right now and asking for you to choose your future based on their vision, choose wisely. Or else, the winning political body just might do what they said they were going to do.
As the Terminator promised, the future is brighter when you get salvation. Then again, the Terminator had already a heads up on what the future held. In one scenario, there is no future. You have to accept the hand that will take you to a future that is real. So, be careful, and choose wisely. The future depends on it.
