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With election just 12 days off, it's almost safe to turn on TV

Less than two weeks to go until the federal election. It will be safe to turn on the television again with no fear of inadvertently hitting a political ad.

Less than two weeks to go until the federal election. It will be safe to turn on the television again with no fear of inadvertently hitting a political ad.

I vowed when the election was called to avoid viewing any political ads or listening to any campaign analysis. My view of election advertising is that, for the most part, it is idiotic and dishonest. Try as I might, I couldn't avoid bumping into an occasional election ad. The culmination of dumb ads and pathetic reporting is the leaders' debates. If the House of Commons is where our members of Parliament learn their rude and obnoxious behaviour, it is on the hustings and in the debates that the top producers display their skills. I was lucky enough to miss all the so-called debates, but I was exposed to the odd snippet on the news. My avoidance was justified.

Grown men try to talk over each other and mouth half-truths. What pathetic role models. It was all men this time around as Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, was excluded from most of the debates.

Based upon her performance at this year's Press Gallery dinner, it would have added interest to the debates to invite her to participate and slip her a couple of martinis just before proceedings began. Alas, no such attempt was made to increase the entertainment value. We were stuck with sober men yelling at each other.

After the drudgery of the debate, comes the nonsense of "who won the debate" - as if there could be a winner after such an embarrassing performance. But someone might shoot off a zinger and move the polls - it doesn't appear to have happened this year.

Is it any wonder that voter turnout continues to shrink? Who wants to expose themselves to what passes for electioneering in our country.

Our first female prime minister, Kim Campbell, said during the 1993 election that an election is no time to discuss serious issues.

At the time she was lambasted for expressing that opinion, but I think she was right.

There is, after all, no intelligent discussion on managing the economy or coming up with a well thought out strategy. Of course the "important" issue for the moment is the wearing of the niqab.

Two faceless new citizens doesn't seem that relevant, but it is a potential wedge issue. Strategy on the fly does not make for good policy. It is also why so often that governments are accused of not keeping their promises.

If a policy was only initiated because it was different from the other guys, there is a good chance the policy is a bad idea and shouldn't be undertaken. The classic case is the Liberal promise by Jean Chretien to repeal the goods and services tax if they were elected.

Repealing the GST was a bad idea and I believed it would never happen. It didn't. So there is a good chance that whatever has been promised may not see the light of day - and we should be thankful for that.

Tom Siba, an ex-publisher of the Optimist, misses the Social Credit Party.