While the leaders of our main political parties go through the motions of a brief, and thus far entirely unplugged election campaign, our heads are being pulled in different directions.

The American election campaign is far more interesting – something Prime Minister Stephen Harper was surely banking upon when he called the election.

Economists are predicting a “short and shallow recession” for 2009 and our economy is expected to remain weak, meaning the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates.

The American-made anchor that is dragging down global commodity prices may have “fairly serious” consequences on housing markets, especially in Western Canada, noted Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets last week.

And if the world’s reeling economic structure isn’t enough to make you not care a tinker’s cuss about Harper, Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe or some other luckless idealists, a recent report is noting that mankind is doing a better job of wiping out the world’s animal populations than originally believed.

Of the 4,651 species for which enough data was available for scientist to work with, 25% (1,139) are now threatened with extinction. Thirty-six per cent of marine species are threatened. Cause: human kind and its drunken six-legged bull in a China shop approach to life on this fragile planet.

Such a story rated below the falling markets and below the U.S. presidential campaign and below the Canadian election campaign. In the Vancouver Sun it also rated below a story about 10 gamblers being killed on a bus in California and how the Anaheim Ducks had ruined the Vancouver Canucks’ pre-season winning streak.

If you follow hockey and know how infinitely unimportant the pre-season is, it really should make you wonder as to why we keep failing to admit the omnipotence of issues related to our planet’s demise by focussing our attentions on grotty history specks such as Stephen Harper and company. But we have got to focus people!

You can blame the media all you want for how stories are played and where but we’re the information professionals utilizing up-to-date studies and well-honed observations on what the public wants to know about.

More people want to know about what Brittany Spears had for breakfast on day five in rehab or if Brangelina’s babies have yet agreed to star in their own sitcom than they do about one-quarter of the world’s animal species currently facing extinction. That’s like, so depressing.

Unfortunately, most Canadians couldn’t recite what Harper, Dion, Layton etc. are basing their campaigns upon – as in their platforms.

This election campaign has been by far the most tepid in recent memory, which explains why many Canadians are not paying attention. Watching this bunch wince toward election day is like trying to get up for a cage match between three whiny weaklings, with a couple of calcium deficient hemophiliacs thrown in for good measure (and good television).

So with all that in mind, we are hoping voters in the Kootenay-Columbia ignore the weak state of our federal leadership and just vote with your consciences on who you believe will represent us the best in Ottawa.

We’ve got four names on the ballot, with one being extremely familiar – Conservative MP Jim Abbott. Then there is NDP candidate Leon Pendleton, a beekeeper from Edgewood – one of the most tucked away outposts in this large riding and Kimberley resident Betty Aitchison is carrying the Liberals’ flag into battle. Finally, former Edgewater resident Ralph Moore is the Green Party candidate.

Most of Canada’s major political spectrum interests are covered in this group but the question asked often but which remains to be answered: are any of their parties and leaders capable of adequately leading Canada into this turbulent and potentially troubling times?

The fact is, a generous mixing of all the four main parties (sorry Bloc Quebecois, but out here in the wild west, you just don’t count for beans) would be the best option. Another term of polarized views battling for the sake of battling will not remotely begin to solve our pressing environmental needs or our economic upheavals.

Alas, our system is what it is and we still need to vote to show that we value that blessed freedom – so please take the time next Tuesday and vote with your conscience and try to be as informed about who you are voting for as possible.