- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 10
-
Sparkle (0)
Hey Canada, we've got a problem. It seems that last week, two in five of you didn't bother do a very simple task. You didn't put an "X" on a piece of paper. Two in five of you, my fellow Canadians, did not vote. I was in and out of my voting station in four minutes. I still would have done if it had taken me four hours. It's a duty. It's a right. It's something we're darned lucky to have. Yet 40.1 percent of you did. not. vote.
I realize you didn't want an election. I realize that after about the first two days all of the politicians start to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher - "Wah, wahh-wah, wahhh wah." And I know you really didn't want to spend $300 million on an election. I'm with you. But do you know what's worse? We just spent $300 million on an election that not only did people not want, but that people couldn't be bothered to vote in.
Like Colleen Anderson I've heard all the excuses. She summed them up pretty well.
* We’ll vote and it will just be the same.
* We’ll vote but no one listens to us anyways.
* Politicians make all sorts of promises and never keep them (in fact Harper wanted a mandatory election date and then went against his own rule)
* Politicians don’t talk to us or have our concerns in mind. (I heard this from several people in their 20s–do politicians talk at the universities at all?)
* All they do is call each other names and then get involved in scandals.
* I make my opinion known by not voting.
* We need proportional representation.
* I can’t support anyone 100%.
* Our leaders lack charisma.
It's a pretty complete list, although it's missing the ever popular "Canadian politics = boring." I'm sorry, I didn't realize politics were supposed to be exciting or entertaining. It's government, not the Stanley Cup playoffs. Deal with it and move on - preferably in the direction of a voting booth.
Do you know who did vote? Our armed forces that are deployed in Afghanistan, in a war zone, voted to the tune of 84 percent. Military Mom at Home has a son over there and she cannot understand our apathy at home.
You know what's even scarier than our voting record and apathy was this little ditty that I read courtesy of Genevieve Barrons. A residence at UBC put a poll in their paper and the results were impressive, and not in a good way.
The second poll was “Does Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party have what it takes to win another term in Office?” 47% said No, 36% said Yes and 17% said Who is Stephen Harper? Is it just me or is it terrifying that one in five students polled, all of whom are currently living in Canada, didn’t know who Harper was?
Like him, love him or loath him I would kind of expect people living in Canada (Canadian or not) to know who Stephen Harper is.
Believe it or not, I do not like politics. I do not belong to any political party. And I may have, once or twice, thrown something at the person controlling the television remote when they linger too long on political coverage. Ok, ok, I might, just maybe, like Gilles Duceppe's suits, Stephen Harper's sweater, and Jack Layton's orange ties (sadly lacking this election, what's up with the blue Jack?). So to an extent I understand your apathy. But on election day your haul your butt to the polling station and get a ballot. Like Nike says, "Just do it!"
Next election, which is likely to be soon since our politicians are so obsessed with the word "majority", you need to do something. Get get a ballot. But an X on it. Or spoil it. I don't care what you do with it (although I'd prefer you not eat is since that actually is illegal). But put it in the box and get counted.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
