The joy of victory, the agony of defeat

I’m sitting here, waiting for the final results to come in, and I’m torn between thinking there’s something seriously wrong with the way we elect Members of Parliament, and thinking everything is just as it should be.

On the one hand, I’m thinking our next MP is a complete greenhorn, whose only previous political achievement appears to be championing a footbridge in Pemberton. We have decided to send to Ottawa someone who knows little about the policies of the government she will now represent, who knows nothing about how to get things done in Ottawa.

On the other hand, what’s so wrong with that? Do we always have to elect old crocks who have been around forever? Why not someone who will approach the job, in the beginning, like a deer in headlights, a little frightened, perhaps, but anxious to please and willing to work, burdened by none of the baggage one inevitably accumulates the longer one has been in politics.

I heard someone say the other day that the best thing about Cathy McLeod is that she isn’t Betty Hinton. OK, so that isn’t kind, but in politically practical terms, there’s something to be said for the theory that Kamloops really wanted to stay Conservative all along, and that, in the last week of the campaign, decided we were more willing to live with a new Conservative MP than with either an NDP or Liberal one.

That certainly would seem to be consistent with the Daily News-TV7 poll of a week ago, which showed Michael Crawford and McLeod in a dead heat. Crawford held on to the support he had then, but McLeod soared more than 10 points, while Ken Sommerfeld plunged by about the same number — for awhile, the real race seemed to be between Sommerfeld and Donovan Cavers of the Greens for third place.

But then, I think any country that re-elects a candidate like Colin Mayes — as was the case in Okanagan-Shuswap — must have some problems. And I think of the many good candidates who will take their places in the House, and figure things aren’t all bad.

I feel for Crawford and Sommerfeld. When you work hard for something, do everything you can, but fail anyway, it takes some time to get over it. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s no greater feeling of excitement and wonder than McLeod is experiencing right now.

Tomorrow, she’ll still be shaking her head to make sure it’s not all a dream. Then she’ll get down to work and find out what politics is really all about.