There are winds of change blowing in the world of politics, not only here in Canada but in other locations around the world, and federal politicians here should take note of this as the federal election will be held in October.
A major election was just held in the European Union, and while results varied widely from country to country, the overall theme was that the major parties which had been holding power until now were largely punished by the voters of Europe.
Breaking the results down by country, some went far right (such as in Italy) and others went far left (Germany), and the UK voted in representatives of the Brexit Party, which ironically wants England to leave the EU.
How will the EU work now with such huge variances in political ideologies voted in? Some pundits suggested there will need to be a lot of compromises made in the issues that will be faced by the European Parliament. How that will work practically in the coming months and years will be anybody’s guess.
There have been hints of changes coming here in Canada, and one sign of that was the joint announcement by the two former Liberal cabinet ministers, Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould, who both spoke in their home ridings thousands of miles apart but presented basically the same message.
Both women said they will be running in the fall federal election as independents, and they wore white to signify this position. As Philpott said, white goes with any colour: blue, red, orange or green, and it can work with all of them.
The message seems to be that they are leaving partisan politics and will focus on running to represent the voters of their riding.
Taken in context, the voters in their respective ridings will certainly understand what brought them to this point, namely they were kicked out of the Liberal caucus for standing up for their principles.
This alone ought to earn them a favoured spot in the hearts of voters, but then it will depend on whether the electorate wants to have MPs who don’t have the backing of a federal party.
Whether they win their respective seats or not is up to those living in their ridings, but it is an interesting turn of events to go independent and focus on what politics ought to be about rather than toeing the party line in everything they do and say.
