What I wanted to ask the candidate at the nomination meeting was how she or he felt about the Prime Minister’s dogmatic approach to questions of science and statistics. How did the PM make his decisions without the facts that reason, study and the exchange of ideas might bring to the discussion table. Was there a discussion table? Did the current PM simply know all the answers by some divine right conferred on all political leaders or was he using his vast experience in all things to intuitively know what was best for us? That is what I wanted to ask but I edited my question down to would the party be amenable to free trade talks with Iceland.
Across the street I was going to present my questions to the nominee about their leader’s stand on tax-free weed but like man they already had that one on their list. Inquiring if they had any budget plans and policy papers on the Bank of Canada’s role in fighting inflationary trends brought on by the recent upheaval in the Ukraine seemed premature so I cut that out and settled for asking if the new leader felt climate change was an issue and were carbon taxes real taxes. The answer was immediate – they would get back to me before the election. At this point I was still favouring the party to the leftish centre, although I could see that I would have to supply my own answers to my questions.
The party that has a bearded leader (facial hair may be optional for a leader but can you trust a clean-faced guy like Putin or Obama?) always seems to have lots of questions ready for answer period so their nominee meeting likely did not need any more questions. However, I did want to ask if they ever considered changing their party colour to something other than orange. Orange seems so, I don’t know, ‘fruity’, I guess. Red, blue and green are gone but maybe they could try a paisley or floral pattern. On the second edit I dropped that and settled for the minimum wage question: should we raise the minimum wage or simply unionize every worker?
Meanwhile the provincial candidates meetings were in full swing and I thought many of the same questions needed asking. Would the conservatives shorten the feeding trough as promised; would they tear down the turbines or at least renegotiate the price paid for wind power. Could a person trust the liberals and their many friends who had their fingers in so many provincial pies? How far would the orange gang go to hold onto the perception of power-sharing with a minority government? These questions needed answers but I cut them out, stroking them off the list and left only the burning question: Do you know where Northern Ontario is?
Knowing that the federal and provincial members cannot answer questions without following the party line, I realized that there was little point in asking questions of the nominees or candidates. That was why it was so easy to edit out my list even though those questions needed to be asked.
Free of party politics, the municipal politicians could answer questions. Some had already answered the question of free trade with Iceland; most would not impose a carbon tax on local property owners as long as they installed a carbon monoxide detector in their homes; paisley socks and ties were acceptable in the city’s dress code; and all of them knew where Northern Ontario was on a road map.
However there were some other questions that needed answers. Would the council consider extending Memorial Gardens seating by another two thousand seats if the Battalion were in the finals for a second year? Was there any truth that a new arena to be built for X dollars near Omischl Field is in the works? Did the forensic audit of the missing gasoline include a subset for the windshield washer fluid inventory? Has anyone checked the Lost and Found bin for the CEO’s report? What did you learn during the frequent in-camera ‘educational and training sessions’? Do you believe being like Rob Ford, ‘one of the people’, will enhance the image of North Bay? Exactly how will you bring new jobs to the City? Will you cut costs or raise taxes? Or both?
What are the odds of getting an answer to my questions? Why bother – edit the whole lot of them . . .
