Dear Editor,

In the nearly 40 years it has been my pleasure to live in the Comox Valley, I have never failed to cast my ballot in local, provincial and federal elections. Sometimes it was voting for the candidate, the platform, or the leader most favoured or disliked the least. I have been a party faithful.

However in the upcoming election I am finding it difficult to choose, not because of the candidates, the leaders, or the infantile level of campaign strategy, but for the reason that I am fed up with the entire party system and the structure of government.

No matter what the governing party proposed, the Opposition has to be against it. Could be something that makes great social or fiscal sense which all parties occasionally come up with, but the Opposition has to dig in their heels and dispute it and the satanic forces behind it. Come an election and the roles are sometimes reversed and the once underdog Opposition finds itself holding the reins of power. Oh, boy, here we go! Of the four-year term, the first couple are spent dismantling the work of the previous tyrants and the next two are expended in passing their own set of rules which will be rejected

If they get the boot next circus.

Most of this tug-of-war has little to do with enacting legislation good for us citizens but more for the party self-improvement and survival of the bureaucratic apparatchiks.

This is equally true for all players on the political spectrum鈥攔ight, centre or left. And the theatrics are unfortunately not limited to our neighbours to the south, as we have seen.

It is spring. After a long and dreary winter, my lawn is turning Green. As will my vote.

Harold Macy

Merville BC