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Freedom of choice must be a good thing

The most significant thing about my column this week is not the headline.

The most significant thing about my column this week is not the headline, nor the content, nor even the ending which some, but not all readers may make it to, no doubt, breathing a sigh of relief.

Finally. The end!

No, it won’t be any of the above that give the column of May 5, 2015 significance.

Actually, there is, however, one thing that will make this column stand out among the many, many columns that I have penned.

Okay, typed.

Penned just sounds much more eloquent and writer-like making me think of Mark Twain whom I have long admired from afar.

Actually this has nothing to do with my column at all, but that fact it will be hot off the press (another favourite journalist type saying of mine) on the same day of our provincial election.

And, on this day most (okay some) people will be exercising their democratic right and going to the voting polls.

And as much as people grumble and complain and mutter about an election that is far from free for us, Joe public type people, we need to exercise that democratic right.

Of course, any kind of exercise is good, but going to the voting polls is an exercise unlike the type of exercise that can cause people to sweat or ladies such as myself to glow.

True, there is the question as to whom to vote for? As for me, I have covered political forums, listened to debates and read the paper (the other papers), and should be a dyed in thewool, something!

But, alas, I’m not. I’m as confused and unsure as the next confused and unsure person.

Years ago, I remember my dad, who was a staunch Social Credit type person, going to all these rallies and talking to the big cheeses like he was on an equal footing with them.

My dad was like that. He was as at home in the political arena as he was with a fishing rod.

As for me, I was always tagging after him. In those years, that’s all there was, me and him and this shaggy yellow dog who followed both of us.

I remember going to my dad on one Social Credit type rally. It was a warm night in June and the air was filled with the perfume of wild roses. I put one in my hair, as I tagged along behind my dad, on his way to talk to the big, important people wearing suits and smiles.

I didn’t listen, of course, to their talk, but only gently patted the rose in my hair, feeling young and glamourous and more than slightly bored.

But back to the present.

This year, it seems the political waters are murkier than ever as mud slinging fork tongued individuals hiding behind a façade of plastic smiles and plastic words, tell us their perception of the truth.

It is difficult to make an informed decision, because, politics like any good story has more than one side, indeed more than two sides.

But by Wednesday, regardless of change, we will all have moved forward.

People will have gone back to work, to the coffee shops and to their homes.

And, the decision will have been made, whether it be a minority or a majority government.

And we Albertans who live in the land of the wild rose, where oil prices rise and fall with alarming regularity, and new generations of sweet little babies keep springing up to keep our schools full and our teachers busy, will keep on keeping on.

And, all we know for sure is that we have, and will continue to have, the freedom of choice.

And regardless of who gets in to run our province, that, for sure, has to be a good thing!