It’s that time again.

The time that all of us pray will never return and sadly, our prayers are never answered and it always comes back.

A time when people who ordinarily would not give us the time of day now  stop by,want to talk to us and even pretend they care about us.

A time when strangers knock on our doors and make promises they have no intention of keeping.

A time when the telephones in our homes become instruments of terror and we are afraid to answer them.

A time when TV commercials aired during reality TV shows depict more virulent reality than the shows themselves.

And the reality they depict illustrate clearly how our standards of decency have eroded over the years.

Yes, sadly, it’s that time again.

Election time.

And for the next four weeks we will be subjected to a daily barrage of attack advertising, name-calling, personal attacks, dirty tricks and infantile behavior by the very people who wish to lead us as they constantly behave in ways that demonstrate the very antithesis of leadership.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-elections. Indeed I have never missed an opportunity to vote and view our right to cast votes as an absolute obligation.

I firmly believe that by choosing not to vote you forfeit your right to whine about the government and as whining about the government is my seventh most favorite thing to do, the thought of not voting has never crossed my mind.

But this year I’m going to do something I’ve never done before.

In previous elections I have always voted for the candidate representing the party whose ideology seems closest to mine. I have not paid much attention to the candidates themselves and my focus has always been to cast my vote in the hope that this will help the party win a majority of seats and thus form the next government.

Not this year.

This year I am going to vote for a candidate whose party ideology does not mirror mine and whose party have the same chance of forming the government as I have of becoming pregnant.

And I don’t care.

I am going to vote for a man who is the incumbent and while ideologically he and I are worlds apart he is the embodiment of everything we wish for, and seldom receive, in our politicians.

I have watched this man at work in our community as he, day after day, serves his constituents with a level of sensitivity and caring that many of us have never encountered before. He goes out of his way to be available to anyone and everyone who wishes to meet with him, patiently listens to everything they have to say, and, in a remarkably unpolitician-like manner, keeps his word and delivers on every promise he makes.

He has endless energy for those he serves and no request is too big for him to manage.

He is filled with integrity and has a never-ending work ethic.

Which probably gets him in trouble with his colleagues.

I’m sure they don’t like him making the rest of them look bad.

So for the first time in my life I am voting against my ideological beliefs and for a man I believe in.

Please, I beg of you, don’t tell anyone I’m voting for a Liberal.

I still have to live in this town.

Till we read again.