Canadians more passionate about Jays than politicians

As Canadians headed to the polls this week for what would be a deciding moment in Canadian history after the longest campaign in history, it was still uncertain who would win. But what was certain is that in the final few weeks some parties rose to the occasion well others began to sputter, with the NDP taking the cake on the sputtering end of things.
It seemed in the week prior to the election most Canadians had already made up their minds, with over 3.5 million ballots cast in the early voting cycle. The pitches, pleas and fear-mongering of the final week fell mostly on deaf ears as the Canadian electorate turned en masse to watch the drama and spectacle of the Toronto Blue Jays post-season run. In doing so, Canadians also effectively turned their backs on a too long campaign that held too little drama of its own.
Canadians voted, but they did not do it with gusto. They did it as a matter of course, many holding their noses, as they marked their X.
Why is it, one might ask, the Toronto Blue Jays could elicit such passion from Canadians of all stripes when an historic vote with the destiny of the country at stake could do nothing but elicit a sigh and a groan? One answer was the politics of division all parties employed to some extent to try and sandbag their way to a victory, but none moreso than the Conservatives. Another has to be the complete bombardment of the airways and social media with in-your-face election advertising. And the final has to be the running of the three major party’s campaigns in a soulless, joyless, play it safe way which appeared to most Canadians as the political version of playing the trap defence in hockey or ticky-tacky in soccer: Unimaginative, non-visionary, plodding and dull. All of these adjectives are appropriate to what we as Canadian voters have seen from our political leadership these past three months.
The Blue Jays have been a team of passion. Playing their hearts out every game, wearing their emotions on their sleeves and overcoming incredible adversity to get to where they are today: Win, lose; good luck or bad
It is a safe bet to say that more Canadians will be tuning in to watch the Blue Jays take on the Royals on October 19 than will be watching as the vote numbers and riding results roll in. It shouldn’t be that way, but in this election the politicians only have themselves to blame.

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