Niverville is the place I call home. I haven’t lived there in over 35 years, yet it still brings back wonderful memories of my younger years. I was born in Paraguay and moved to Canada within 6 months of my birth. We lived on what was then William Street and I walked to school every day—rain, sleet, or snow.

The national media are positively giddy with their new-found (rediscovered?) access to our parliamentary representatives, and most notably the Prime Minister himself. Not only is the press once again abuzz with activity, but all manner of photo ops and interviews are available to them from Trudeau’s airport greeting of refugees to his thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The optimists are calling this the dawn of a golden age while the pessimists simply write it off as politicking. But if the first week of parliament is any indication, we are moving toward a new culture in the great halls. True to promise, we see changes in the operation of the House and the inclusion of all parties in its shape and design.

Numerous articles and studies have remarked on the incredible residential growth Niverville and the surrounding area has experienced over the past decade. We see it in our overcrowded schools, the extensive waiting list for daycare facilities, and in the number of new homes being built year after year.

I am not sure if there is a greater sadness than when our fellow man, our human brethren, seeks to kill another of our brethren. War is hell—and this statement can be expanded to include police actions or any other synonym for conflict our leaders can conjure. Like most, I am prepared to experience some sacrifice, some proverbial hell, if the end result is better.

While party strategists may lay the best plans and pollsters the most refined algorithms, it is ultimately the voice of the people that roars loudest. And so we sit following an election with unprecedented final tallies, wondering how this came to be.

Unpredictable and unprecedented. As we the taxpayers prepare to spend a mere $375 million on the longest campaign in over 75 years, what type of value do we get for our money? Yes, our money, because in a time when governments are struggling to find the funds to fill the ever-increasing number of requests, this small sum of $10 per person could go a long way.