Mightn't one be justified in thinking that in a country as wealthy and technologically advanced as Canada, one of its premier provinces would have an electronic means of casting votes in place? Doesn't it seem logical that this might be a priority? Obviously, it is not, and more's the pity.

In any event, we've just been through an election. A month since the writ was dropped. A month of miserable politicking which seems to bring out the absolute worst in people running for political office.

You might imagine that the circumstances that impact most worryingly on peoples' lives; in this instance the economy and the job market; would be addressed fulsomely. But as someone who wasn't very successful herself in the political sphere in the final analysis casually remarked, a political campaign is no time to address critical issues. Of course not. It's the impressively slight yet meaningless sound bite that gets attention and repetitiously repeated as though it represented an enlightened view about anything useful.

So the election is now concluded. After all those incessantly infuriating partisan telephone calls at the most inconvenient times of day, both live voices cajoling for a particular candidate, or a more universal and equally irritating canned message, after all the advertising, the leaders' comments published and reviewed by political pundits, the poll results and the litter of campaign signs on roadsides, it is done.

To no one's complete satisfaction. But this is the reality of life.

You might think that after two terms in office where the winning candidate acting as provincial administrator faltered one objective after another, sneakily broke one election promise after the other, wasted taxpayer funding enormously, he and his party would be hoisted out of office. Not to be. In this time of economic insecurity and bungled opportunities the scoundrel has been voted back into office, albeit without the majority that the polls had suggested.

When we went out to vote at our local riding yesterday afternoon, there were quite a number of election officials in the large school gymnasium sitting about cheerfully. While we two were the sole members of the voting public present and accounted for, to cast our ballots at that moment.