Driftwood Editorial - Election season

As the 22 candidates who seek positions at various local government on Salt Spring Island officially launched their campaigns earlier this week, there’s been plenty of talk about fair play, healing the community and working together.

It may not be the standard pre-election rhetoric that we’ve grown accustomed to at the provincial and federal levels, but it’s certainly a relief from the attack-ad driven world of modern politics.

In the spirit of fair play, it’s only proper that the Driftwood should lay out some of the ground rules ahead of the Nov. 19 elections.

Assuming there will be high demand for space in the letters to the editor section of the Driftwood in coming weeks, contributors should heed the following advice. We won’t be publishing letters from candidates outlining their platforms or beliefs, although they will be allowed to respond to allegations raised by other letter writers. No new allegations will be published in letters in the Nov. 16 edition, which is the last issue of the paper before the election.

Letters should be no longer than 350 words — and shorter is even better to accommodate as many as possible. There is no guarantee the Driftwood will have space for all letters received, and a maximum of two letters from one writer will be accepted in the next four issues, unless by some miracle we have extra space to fill.

The Driftwood encourages writers to take a positive approach explaining why they favour the candidates they want to see elected, rather than trying to denigrate the opposition.

With so many candidates and issues on the table, there’s lots to talk about in coming weeks.

We’ve got more than a month of feisty debates and highly charged arguments before voters head to the ballot box and cast their votes. Let’s keep it clean, stick to the issues and remember, after the dust settles we’re all stuck on this rock together.