With children having headed back to school and the crisp hint of fall returning to the morning air, Canadians are beginning to turn more of their attention to the federal election campaign going on around them.
The campaign has officially been going on for the better part of a month, with the party leaders criss-crossing the county and releasing platforms and policy details in dribs and drabs. But with the election date set for Oct. 19, Canadians have been pre-occupied with other matters, whether it be heading out for a sunny summer day at the beach or catching up on the Blue Jays pennant drive.
But as the weather continues to cool down we can expect the election campaign to heat up. The News has begun our coverage into the federal campaign. We are in the midst of running profiles of all the candidates of the main political parties in the three Saanich ridings.
In the future, we will be covering the local all-candidates meetings as well as soliciting the candidates’ responses to a series of questions we feel are important to local voters. But we also want to hear from you, our readers. We welcome letters to the editors, but ask writers to stick to the issues rather than sink to character bashing.
And we encourage readers to take the time to learn the issues in order to cast an informed vote. There will be several opportunities in the days ahead to take in a candidates debate, and between television, newspapers and the Internet, there is no reason not to find out where the parties stand on issues important to you.
The News hopes to do our part in highlighting some of the issues in the campaign and giving readers a sense of who the candidates are. We hope that voters will take an active role, let the candidates know what issues are important to you and above all, exercise your democratic right on Oct. 19.