Election Over... Back To Life As Usual

Thanks For The Green Support

By Cameron Wigmore

I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this election by voting. You've helped make democracy happen. A special thank you goes out to my supporters, volunteers and those who voted for me; your efforts and votes have shown that people in the Crowfoot riding believe in me. It's good to know that you want to see green values represented in parliament. I received 2347 votes, up from 1795 last election. This is an increase from 3.9% of the vote to 4.5%, which is the new national average for the Green Party. The Canadian government has realized that green principles matter to Canadians. I believe that by winning votes we make the government take notice of us, and we will continue to see other parties adopt green values and policies in their platforms.

I've found this experience to be very spiritually rewarding, and will definitely run again next election. I'm excited about doing service work in our communities over the next few years. My involvement in the Drumheller community will include volunteering with addiction recovery programs, and looking into furthering our local recycling programs and efforts. I'm anticipating talking with farmers about their concerns, as the agricultural crisis hasn't been corrected, and I want to bring your concerns to the Green Party. I look forward to speaking with you, working to learn what your opinions, beliefs and values are.

Our voter turnout here in Crowfoot was 65.1% and I want to see it go higher. Choosing to not vote because you are uninformed, disillusioned or you just don't care is a symptom of a larger problem, a generational problem; the average age of membership to a political party is 63. There is an entire generation of beliefs and ideals that are not being represented.

The majority of ridings in this country have an overwhelming support for one candidate or another. If you live in one of those ridings and made a "strategic vote", you voted for someone you don't necessarily agree with the most, in an attempt to keep someone you really dislike out of office.

Now that the Bloc holds the balance of power in parliament, maybe Canadians will be more in favour of electoral reform. Proportional representation would give the fair amount of seats to a party as reflected by the percentage of the vote they received. The advanced televised polls during elections lead voters to believe that the percentages shown translate into how much power a party a party will receive. Sadly, with 10.5% of the vote, the Bloc now has 51 seats in parliament, out of a total 308. With 17.5% of the vote, the NDP has only 29 seats. Does our government represent our votes? Obviously the answer is no. The Green Party's 4.5% of the vote is equal to 13 or 14 seats in a proportional system. In our riding Mr. Sorenson received over forty three thousand votes, when he only needed a tenth of that to win. Those votes are not transferred to elect another candidate, and effectively almost 40,000 people voted for no reason. We need electoral reform now so that your votes will be fairly reflected in government. Learn more on this subject by visiting the fair vote website at www.fairvotecanada.org

I ran in this election with every effort to win and every hope of winning, because that's what I think I owe my voters and my party. I'll continue to enjoy sharing the message that the Green Party appeals to all voters with a full platform that covers all issues. I realized this was a 'David & Goliath' battle, but as the underdog I know that courage and tenacity will lead me to success. Slow and steady wins the race.

Sincerely,

Cameron Wigmore

By the way, this ends my political posting here. I'll be creating my own political blog, and getting back on the jazz track here. Unfortunately Blogger lost my template for this blog due to a glitch, but I'll survive.