For the first time in what seems like forever, your vote counts when you go to the polls on Monday (June 28).
For so much of our history, the fate of each election has rested in the vote-rich provinces of Ontario and Quebec, meaning that the Prime Minister-to-be is often popping the champagne corks before the polls in B.C. have even closed.
This time, the race is likely will go down to the last poll, and given the number of close races in B.C. - especially the Lower Mainland - the identity of the next Prime Minister of Canada may not even be known by the time we publish next Friday.
Not that our race in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast will be that close. Despite Liberal candidate Blair Wilson's interesting interpretation of North Shore polling results and despite the media buzz (never backed up in hard fact) that Green candidate Andrea Goldsmith was one of two possible winners in B.C., this riding is Conservative John Reynolds' to lose - and he hasn't lost it.
He may have taken some shots from all sides - as witnessed at our local all-candidates' meeting Monday - and his leader and party may make some unsure if they should form a government, but we've seen nothing that can shake the Conservative bedrock of West Vancouver, the foundation of this riding.
Accordingly we're predicting - not endorsing, but predicting - Reynolds to return to Ottawa, with Wilson placing a solid second and the Greens challenging the NDP for third.
What happens in the rest of the riding will make the difference between a close Reynolds victory and a landslide. We think that Wilson has made enough of an impression - despite his campaign's difficulty interpreting poll numbers - to possibly top the polls here in Squamish, and Goldsmith has benefited from plenty of media attention and will likely reap rewards on the Sunshine Coast as well as in the Sea to Sky corridor.
But even if we're right, that doesn't mean that a vote for a candidate other than Reynolds is wasted. For the first time, federal funding will be going to political parties that gain at least five per cent of the vote nationally - about $1.75 per vote. A vote for the NDP or the Greens might not elect your candidate, but it will give your party a boost in the next federal election.
Voters of all stripes can cast their ballot in good conscience for the party that suits their principles in the knowledge that it does something.
Of course, that's only if you use it.
See you at the polls.
