During the recent Municipal election, you may have noticed that WGO was consistently 8 pages. You may also have noticed that lately it is 4 pages. During the Municipal election, five of the eight candidates advertised in WGO. They obviously believed that advertising in WGO would help them reach an otherwise unreachable or overlooked segment of the electorate. They realized that advertising in WGO was a cost-effective, if not downright cheap, way to get the word out about their campaigns. They demonstrated an understanding of the value of investing in the community.
The mayoral candidates invested money into the community by advertising in WGO. That investment ensured that WGO survived those weeks and helped supply WGO’s readers with more content than usual. In so doing, they contributed to the weekly pittance WGO staffers are paid (as it is often joked around the office, “Yeah, WGO staffers get paid weekly…Very weakly!”). The spin-offs from this investment contributed to Kwik Kopy Printing, who print the magazine every week, and contributed to the economy in a number of other ways as well. Further, the potential Municipal leaders made a tangible commitment to the arts in this community – the writers, photographers and graphic designers who work on WGO week after week, as well as those artisans whose work is profiled, reviewed, critiques and ultimately promoted in the pages of WGO, Cape Breton’s only Arts & Entertainment publication.
In contrast, with a few notable exceptions, none of the eight candidates in the upcoming Federal election, have seen fit to make the same kind of commitment to or interest in the community by reaching out, by investing locally, by supporting local business, by encouraging the arts. What does that tell you about the kind of representation we can expect if one of these non-believers gets elected? When wondering why WGO got so slim lately, look no further than these unnamed (and faceless, in these pages at least) Federal employee wannabes who, when faced with a relatively easy and inexpensive way to show faith in the community and contribute to its economy, choose to ignore that it even exists.
