Well that’s that. In a wholly predictable, anyone-could-have-called-it manner, EC’s bylaws have fallen flat on their face. Again. It couldn’t be said they were voted down by a landslide. You can’t call a few pebbles a landslide. If all 1654 votes (1046 nays, 608 yays) had come from the province of BC alone, that would reflect a voter turn out of about 8% for the province, which would be pathetic. The optimists (if there are any left) would point out that this was potentially a record-setting voter turn out for EC members. A generous estimate would put that at about 2-3% of members taking the 60 or so seconds (no driving, no dialing a phone, just a few clicks of a mouse) it demanded on their busy lives to vote on the bylaws.
Hey provinces! Knock knock!
Who’s there?
No one!
No one who?
No one who wants to vote!
For those who have stuck hard to principle in this tale, I have this to say: When principle is a nose, and your sticking to it results in a bloody mess for a plastic surgeon to clean up, maybe it’s time to give your head a shake and consider what actually matters to members. The provinces are starting to look an awful lot like the Canadian equestrian community’s version of Republican Congress. And while I’m at it, here’s a message to Jump and Eventing, the two disciplines who objected noisily enough on the voting matter to get EC’s Prez and Board to pull a fast one on the provinces at the eleventh hour (and let’s be real here; it was all about Jump’s squawking when it comes right down to it). Why don’t you take a poll of your own members and find out how many of them voted on the bylaws? For every province that has freaked out over the loss of voting privileges, I guarantee there is a sport discipline whose members are at least as apathetic as any stake holder group out there.
The irony is as thick as the blood on a spited face.
