the watch of time

Among the truisms of government elections, and candidates’ behaviours, are that many of them are predicated on massage or sublimation.

Such as in the afterglow of Ontario’s provincial election June 7th…

• Concerns about exhibiting eco-friendliness are set aside once campaign signs start spreading through ridings like weeds
• An elected government begins with two mulligans: one for being new, and one for blaming the previous regime for any inherited issue which proves truly unpleasant
• Demand exceeds supply, i.e. there are more hands reaching out for reward than there are hands to do the rewarding
• There are silver linings in any clouds of results, keeping in mind silver is a somewhat malleable metal
• Coordinating a balanced, effective, cabinet requires no more skill and judgement than is required of a heart surgeon or an explosives expert
• Other party leaders, seen previously as candidates for the ‘third degree’, suddenly as viewed as warm and fuzzy once the results are in
• Commitments before the votes, expressed in detail or not, will reveal, under surreptitious stickers removed afterward, the writing between the lines
• Delivering election night bromides with gusto makes up for having to say anything tangible or comprehensive
• Once the dust settles, all can vocalize commitments to being ‘green’, by simple, but persistent, absorption of otherwise would-be Green party policies
• Declarations of changing the ‘first past the post’ system of determining who wins will percolate once again and then go back in the reduced-for-clearance bin