Canadians will be electing a new federal government on May 2. For some, an election campaign is a time of great excitement. For others, it is six weeks of great irritation. But every media outlet, to be sure, will be mobilizing to provide coverage. We will be, too.

The ongoing political storms throughout the Middle East are a poignant, perfect reminder of how wonderful is the method of the democratic West for changing governments. 

Elections are inelegant, infuriating for their overt partisan posturing, and too embroidered with exaggeration and theatre. Yet, as Sir Winston Churchill famously reminded us, however imperfect democracy, it is far better than the alternative.

Encouraging our readers to vote, enabling our readers to read the explanations of policies and issues from the candidates and party leaders themselves is a very important task for our newspaper, indeed for all newspapers and media in democracies. One can add, without overstating the case, that to do so is a key duty of all serious and fair-minded media in a democratically ruled country.

We undertake that duty with great awareness of its importance to democracy society.

Elsewhere in this edition of The CJN, staff political reporter Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf explains to our readers the nature and extent of the election coverage that we will provide.

There are certain aspects of our intended coverage as explained by Levy-Ajzenkopf that must be emphasized.

• Much to the disappointment of many of our readers, The CJN will not advocate on behalf of one party or another. This has always been the policy of the paper in non-referendum elections. It will not change for the upcoming election.

• Because of the date of the election, we will be publishing four editions of the paper – not including this one – prior to election day. Given that we are a weekly publication, the spare number of editions available to us prior to election day places rather significant  burdens upon our reporters who will be assigned to profile the ridings and the candidates we will be covering.

• Adding to the pressure under which our reporters and freelancers will be working to bring coverage of the  election is the intervention of the holiday of Pesach.

The Pesach edition of The CJN – April 21 – will be sent to press on Monday, April 18. That night is the first seder of the holiday. Our office will be closed early on that day. It will also be closed the next two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, the first days of the holiday. We will return to work on Thursday April 21. The following day, however, Friday April 22, our offices will be again closed for the statutory Easter holiday.

The following Monday and Tuesday, April 25 and 26, the last two days of Pesach, our offices will be closed again. 

Thus, the April 28 edition of The CJN, the last one before election day, will go to press fully one week earlier, namely on Thursday, April 21. But we will have only one day (April 21) that week – the week of Pesach – to produce and complete the April 28 edition, the pre-election day issue.

It will not be easy.

But we will, nevertheless, in accordance with the gravity of the duty upon us and the high priority we attach to that duty, provide excellent coverage of the election to our readers.

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One area of the world where, as suggested above, elections are more a nuisance and a concession to public relations than the central pillar of the democratic structure, is the Middle East. Last week, The CJN reported that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was ready and eager and planning to travel to Gaza to effect a reconciliation with his hated adversary, Hamas. “I am ready to go to Gaza… to end the split and form a new government,” Abbas proclaimed to his followers in Ramallah.

On the streets of Ramallah and Gaza City two weeks ago, Palestinians  demonstrated their desire for Fatah, the majority PA party, and Hamas to come together in some sort of relaxed, political, Kumbaya-singing marshmallow roast. Thus, Abbas made his pronouncement. In Gaza, however, Hamas sentries shot at the demonstrators they knew to be Fatah supporters. It didn’t appear that Hamas was as keen to reconcile as Fatah.

As if to prove the point, senior members of the Hamas military wing last weekend told Abbas’ aides that they would not guarantee the Fatah leader’s safety if he visited the Gaza Strip. Not surprisingly, PA officials interpreted these statements negatively, even as a threat to their leader. Abbas’ unity pilgrimage to Gaza has been called off, at least for the time being.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Recent events prove it. Ongoing Hamas and Fatah machinations confirm it. As we vote next month in our own elections, this democratic kinship that we share with Israel, bears remembering and treasuring.