Canada’s longest campaign season in recent history will conclude Monday night, much to the delight of politics-weary citizens and even wearier political journalists.
“It’s been a long, endless 11 weeks,” said Gloria Galloway, a veteran political reporter for the Globe and Mail, based in Toronto.
Wait, what? Eleven weeks?
“Well, the first week didn’t entirely count because that’s the week in August that people go to their cottages, so it’s safe to say most people weren’t paying attention,” said Chris Hannay, also of the Globe and Mail. “But it was still twice as long as normal, and people felt that.”
To put this in perspective: When the Canadian election season started way back in August, the United States had two presidential candidates named Rick (Santorum and Perry) who had already spent 19 months going to and from Iowa. (One, of course, has since left the race, while the other still has his eyes on the prize that is more than a year away.)….
A longer election cycle doesn’t just give citizens more time to get to know their possible leaders. It also allows for more delicious scandals. To wit: Someone dug up Canadian Broadcasting Corp. video footage of a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party urinating into someone else’s coffee cup while he was working as a repairman. Another candidate dropped out after videos him mocking people with disabilities surfaced on YouTube….
I wish we, here in the U.S., would have a shorter election season. I already have primary fatigue syndrome, but, I guess that would not sit well for the Election Industrial Complex.
Jiminy! 11 weeks? How does democracy survive??