'Tis another political campaign season, and finally things are about to get interesting.
There are two races I will be watching closely for the next six to eight weeks, even though I will be permitted to vote for only one of them.
There is the American presidential campaign, which will feature enough mud slinging to make me want hug myself in the bathtub until Christmas, and then there is the Estevan mayoral race. Now that we finally have two horses vying for the local position of Your Worship, it's become a much more compelling competition.
I just can't turn away from a good, or even bad, political campaign. Campaigns are at the same time frustrating and mesmerizing and kind of a guilty pleasure. I hate to love them and love to hate them. They certainly bring out the clichés in me.
I get sick and tired of the rhetoric on either side of a presidential debate, but can't turn away because I love to hear exactly what kind of shenanigans are going to get brought up in the campaign. Obviously, nothing you hear during a presidential campaign can be considered anything but hot air.
This is especially true when one of the parties running says they won't let facts dictate the campaign and that not every fact a politician uses in a speech can be expected to be entirely accurate. That's a whole logical conundrum in itself.
That is one of the things I love about campaigns, that moment when you realize politicians are incredibly human. They are in their position to win, doing what's best for them, rather than what's best for the people.
That is how I feel about the presidential campaign. The local campaign, I expect to be a whole lot more dignified. The local race, I hope to be about two people presenting their ideas for a path forward in this growing city.
Campaigns shouldn't be about tricking people into voting for you or against your opponent. Campaigns should simply be about showing the people what a politician can do for them. Both sides get to ask voters what they think of their country, province or city, and then ask if their planned direction is something that interests the people.
Whoever loses isn't wrong and their ideas aren't necessarily worse. They just weren't able to connect as much with the voters as their opponent this time around.
American politics are so poisonous, but I look forward to hearing two diverse opinions on what the priorities of the Energy City should be for the next four years.
With all the prosperity experienced in Estevan recently, the mayoral race will, in large part, come down to who can paint the most ambitious portrait of this city looking forward to 2020.
I've only lived here for a short time, but it sounds as though the city has rarely been in as good a shape as it is now. Sure, there are boring, yet necessary things that need to get done, like roads, but the time for Estevan to accept its growth and keep moving forward is now.
What those ambitions are will be different for Councillors Lynn Chipley and Roy Ludwig, our two mayoral hopefuls. It will be great to learn exactly what each of them holds as their vision for this city's future.
We should all look forward to the race.
