Letter to the Editor

Wow, don’t you just love democracy; the thing that Stephen Harper tried to kill in Canada over the past 10 years?

No matter what you do, in the end candidates and political parties from the PM down to the last MP are accountable to citizens. The people spoke loud and clear. They did not share his vision of the future and how he went about being leader of the country.

At least Harper’s respect for the election outcome and his subsequent stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party do show that he accepts the democratic vote and will of the people. Truly Canadian and something to be proud of.

In many places around the world, the outcome would have been far different, messier and probably more violent.

Local Conservative Party candidate David Wilks found out the hard way what happens when citizens feel the chill from Ottawa and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). While Wilks may have been stifled by the PMO and reduced to a eunuch by Harper’s control fetish, you gotta dance with who brought you to the party.

In a close vote, Wilks was defeated by Wayne Stetski candidate for the NDP. Stetski won by a mere 285 votes (NDP 23,529, Con 23,244). The Liberal’s Don Johnston garnered 12,315 votes and the Green Party’s Bill Green 4,115 votes.

The recent federal election should be awake up call for all elected officials, whether they are local, provincial or federal. When citizens get upset and disillusioned by political leaders, they will make change. Fortunately, in Canada, we still have that right.

I never thought that I’d see the day when another Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada. Also, I never thought I’d see the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta swept from power and replaced by the NDP.

2015, what a year in Canadian politics.

Nowell Berg,

Wasa

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