We could wring our editorial hands over the low voter turnout - although it did bump up by a miniscule one per cent this time. We could decry the lack of substantive debate on issues during the campaign. We could simply ponder the future of our province under a new - yet old - establishment. But, instead, we revel in the fact that pollsters and the media were gobsmacked by the results. Yes, we count ourselves among the smug majority of pundits who, like blissful sheep, simply followed the usual election routine: consider the polls irrefutable and build one's plan around them. Although, if one examines the polls closer, a mere three days before the election some had the race in a dead heat with momentum for the Liberals. However, none accounted for a momentum and numbers such as the one we experienced.
We, like other media, already had pre-digested stories ready to run. The standard - what will Adrian Dix be like as the premier? What went wrong for the Liberals and when? Yes, so confident were we all in the outcome that there seemed to be very little excitement to be had on election night. Well, we were wrong, dead wrong. And we are delighted. No, not because the Liberals were elected. We respect the voters' decisions - no matter that we often scratch our collective heads over them. We are delighted because for far too many elections the media, voters and candidates have all grown attached and dependent on polls and pundits. We were long overdue for a wake-up call. A wake-up call that says don't take anything for granted. (We suspect the NDP is saying the same thing for other reasons.) A wake-up call that tells voters that things are not pre-ordained. That getting off your duff and voting might just swing things at the last minute. That, dare we say, the future is not as predictable as many would have us believe.
