{"id":12193,"date":"2015-10-07T17:40:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T21:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12193"},"modified":"2015-10-21T17:48:02","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T21:48:02","slug":"politics-as-usual-change-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-change-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Change the Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mercifully, we are nearing the end of the Federal Election campaign.
\nJust two scant weeks are left.
\nThere will undoubtedly be a flurry of ads and a bevy of \u201cpolicy\u201d announcements in the days to come, all designed to entice those not yet already decided into voting for Larry, Curly or Shemp.
\nMy flippant tone is not meant to be disrespectful, but it is difficult to adopt any other tone given the circumstances. I find the whole exercise somewhat frustrating. I have said it before, but I want more than canned talking points from our would-be Premiers. Policy not pandering please!
\nI am frustrated by both the media coverage and the seeming apathy of those who are supposed to be listening.
\nI understand that media chase \u201cstories\u201d, but they shape them too. And the narrative on this campaign is misshapen, in my opinion. I did a quick scan of columnists in the three major papers (okay I did look at the fourth too, but the obvious bias in the majority of their commentators\u2019 sputtering drives me bonkers). And the focus of the opinion columns? How apathetic voters are. How they are not paying attention to the issues, etc.
\nWith relatively few exceptions, little commentary was provided on the actual the issues \u2013The TPP? Keystone pipeline? Economy? Health care? If you are going to engage in attacks of the electorate for their lack of awareness of the issues, then perhaps you should first demonstrate that you know what those issues are lest you be seen as somewhat hypocritical.
\nOne hopes that folks are paying attention, and to an extent they are. But just what exactly has caught the attention of some voters is somewhat disheartening, disconcerting, discombobulating.
\nIf pollsters are to be believed (and that is a different conversation entirely), then focus seems to be on a narrow issue of national identity. Important for sure, no question. I would hazard a guess that most folks would have a rather strong opinion on what constitutes appropriate expressions of national identity.
\nHowever, is that the only issue? And is it even an issue at all? If inches of column in multiple media are any indication of its importance, it is outsized in comparison to many others competing issues. And that, dear friends, is what frustrates me. When there should be attention, there is distraction.
\nAt times, the various party leaders appear as nothing more than ciphers, not leaders. The manifestation in human form of policy and position as decided by focus group testing. Calculated messaging designed to appeal to targeted pockets of undecided voters.
\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. I don\u2019t blame them. It\u2019s not their fault. They are merely playing the game with the rules that we have – if not agreed to – then acquiesced to.
\nThe game of politics isn\u2019t about providing clear statements about what you stand for. It isn\u2019t about being right or even honest. It\u2019s about winning. Period. At all costs.
\nThat\u2019s the game of politics. Don\u2019t hate the players, hate the game? Don\u2019t take your ball and go home. Help change the game, so that we\u2019ll all want to play.
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is, after all, Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Mercifully, we are nearing the end of the Federal Election campaign. Just two scant weeks are left. There will undoubtedly be a flurry of ads and a bevy of \u201cpolicy\u201d announcements in the days to come, all designed to entice those not yet already decided into voting for Larry, Curly or Shemp. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3aF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 23:11:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}