Cut election campaign time
Although readers of your newspaper might not know it – mainstream coverage of international news being what it is – Canada is now in the middle of its own federal election.
A while back, a good friend of mine in Toronto let me know how appalled she was at the length of Canada’s campaign season this time around – a full 11 weeks.
In our country, of course, everything looks far different; we’ve still got more than a year of this presidential campaign ahead of us. The question, of course, is whether this exorbitant amount of time devoted to debates, interviews, sound bites, and the stentorian pronouncements of pundits will lead to a significantly better outcome than a streamlined schedule would.
It seems that, here in the 21st century, the U.S. has opted for a horse-and-buggy approach to our major political contests. Canadians will arrive at the same destination in much less time. Maybe it’s time for us to emulate our neighbors to the North.
Steven Roesch, Fresno
This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 6:15 AM with the headline "Cut election campaign time."