As I am new to St. Albert, I have spent the past few weeks getting settled which has included setting up my utility services. From past experiences, this is usually a fairly boring task, allowing a stranger into my home to fiddle with my electronics in awkward silence.
However, I like to talk to people, partly because I never know what I might learn or if a story idea might be hiding in what could otherwise be considered a run-of-the-mill encounter.
Aside from being a whiz with electronics, this particular cable guy was also pretty politically savvy and had a viewpoint very similar to my own, which led to a lengthy conversation.
His stance, and something I have been annoyed by for some time, is the fact that the polarization of right and left views in the political arena has become so extreme as to have become a detriment to the effective leadership of our nation.
Moderate political views are quickly becoming a thing of the past as the population drifts further right or left to the point where liberalism and conservatism are becoming defining elements of personality. I visit the United States quite often and have been asked many times, usually around the third or fourth question, upon meeting new people whether I am conservative or liberal.
Each person waits intently for my response and I know my answer will forever cast me in a certain light. I always explain that I have a moderate political leaning, meaning I am conservative for some things and liberal in others. This is a concept difficult for many to believe and their reaction is generally one of disbelief or annoyance that I might be avoiding giving a straight answer.
I feel this divergence is by political design more than it is personal conviction. In recent years, it seems politicians have become less interested in leading and more interested in simply staying in power. Nothing makes the latter more uncertain than the inability to predict how people will vote.
Those are the people who might vote liberal in one election and conservative in the next, marking their ballot for the politician who they feel is the best leader and not who best supports their personal convictions. With that in mind, moderate voters are scary enigmas to any politician. So, it is in a political party’s best interest to align voters to their cause by forcing them further to the left or to the right.
My cable guy hit the nail on the head when he said it is time for Canada to make room for another party, one with more centre leanings. It is time to stop campaigning simply to garner votes and continue collecting the paycheque and to begin campaigning to bring our country closer together.
The difficulty with this, however, is our current level of polarization between the two extremes of political beliefs means moderates are viewed as wishy-washy. They have become labelled as people with no real convictions and too prone to compromise to be effective policy makers.
Chris Puglia is the new assistant editor at the St. Albert Gazette.
