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Politicians have been seeing the world that way since the beginning of history. Look up Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.” The Conservative party used to “pre-screen” attendees to their rallies to keep out those who support other parties. Gone are the days when the leader used to take on hecklers and delight the crowd. Today, only supporters are allowed in.

Many politicians are paranoid and often hold grudges over ridiculous things. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the databases that allow them to keep track of us and all of those slights.

Party voter identification databases are there to identify those that vote for you and avoid those that vote for someone else. It is why I have seen all candidates look at their paper and walk right by my house. Over the last couple of elections, I have cajoled enough political insiders to show me what each party had on me. My house is pretty much blacklisted. I’ll try offering cookies in 2019. Maybe they will come back.

Disliking me is one thing. I have venues to talk to the government. For almost all others, going to their city councillor, MLA, or MP is their only way to communicate how they feel about the future of their community or country. With all encompassing voter and constituent databases, politicians can easily ignore why they are there and ignore those that don’t support them.

The Saskatchewan Party’s reaction to this was less than stellar. To show how much they cared about Olauson’s actions, they took him off the board of the Meewasin Valley Authority. Is that a reward or punishment? I know they wanted it to look like a punishment, but considering the provincial government has slashed Meewasin’s funding and is in the process of defunding it completely, being removed from that board and actually having less work to do sure looks like a reward for poor behaviour from here.