I almost turned around and slapped them.
It never ceases to astound me how completely apathetic we can be about our political system. It especially frustrates me, seeing as people in other countries are literally dying to gain a voice and a vote that we take for granted. Here we are, across the ocean, with the chance to have our voices heard and we don't really seem to care. Though, on the positive side, I feel like this is the first election I can remember where my age group seems so invested in getting the current party out of power.
I'm no expert on politics and I admit that I don't actually know that much about it, but the point is that I'm trying to learn. I believe in exercising my right and what I see as my duty to vote. I don't understand the arguments from people who talk about spoiling their ballots, or not voting by choice, or not caring about politics because it doesn't affect them. WHAT? First off, I don't see how spoiling a ballot makes any statement whatsoever, other than making oneself appear like a spoiled child. Not voting by choice also seems like a ridiculous statement to make. Our system isn't perfect by any means, but until we change it, it is what we have. Why not use it.
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| Getting my generation's attention |
I've been hearing a lot of debate about how if you don't vote, you lose the right to complain. A friend brought up an interesting point, in that if you DO vote, you lose the right to complain because by voting, you've participated and contributed to the system, therefore you have to abide by the outcome. I like to take a third view on this. I think that it is our right and our duty to complain, as much as it is our right and our duty to vote. The fact that we live in a country where we can complain about the government is taken for granted. I say, COMPLAIN LOUDLY. Write letters to the MPs, get informed, figure out what your interests are and discuss politics. Loudly and proudly. Here, I would like to take the opportunity to quote V for Vendetta: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." Yeah, I went there! I'm not such a big fan of fear-mongering in general, but I believe in the government being accountable to its people... Like, apparently they are like, supposed to like, represent us. (Quoted from the same two girls who didn't want to hear about the elections anymore)
It was interesting being abroad and telling people about Canada's poor turnout in previous elections. From what I experienced recently, Canada still has an amazingly positive (and recently completely undeserved) reputation in the general international community. Until recently, I didn't quite understand the full extent of how Harper has set us back into the dark ages, in terms of women's rights, environmental issues, culture and science.
The website that has gotten the most buzz recently (http://shitharperdid.ca/) or the kid and elderly friendly one (rubbishharperdid.com) is like reading a Dr. Evil's To Do list. My favourites in no particular order include , but are not limited to
1) Silencing Environment Canada employees about climate change (I was directly affected by this at the time)
2) The whole "arresting over 1000 Canadians" at the recent G20 summit in Toronto
3) Cutting funding for women's advocacy groups by over 40%
4) Anything to do with first nations in Canada and water security (including not signing on to declaring clean water as a basic human right)
5) The whole "losing our seat at the UN security council" and "almost getting kicked out of the commonwealth" thing
Scary to think that all this happened in CANADA. The True North. The Great White North. Our home and native land. It's terrifying that we've become so apathetic that we haven't pulled an Egypt and kicked Harper out on his creationist behind. Is it that we didn't know about all these things that were happening? Is it that we actually don't really care? It's not as if this information is all recently coming to light. A lot of these events have been going on for years. Maybe it's some kind of cumulative effect. The straw that broke the camel's back. Or the log that broke the lumberjacks' back (if we are keeping it Canada appropriate).
Did I leave for four months and suddenly our federal parties don't need to talk about their environmental platforms? It seems to me, that at this point in time, we can't have environmental issues not be part of any major political debate. Whether we only touch upon environmental issues through other major platforms, it is a subject that needs to be addressed by anyone who will be running a country.
It's been interesting to see how social media is affecting this election. Several interesting and useful websites have been floating around the Facebook world.
JUST VOTE! http://www.youtube.com/user/MercerReport#p/u/2/OYgwUQTSC3I
My aunt sent this one to me:
http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/
It shows you the breakdown of the different parties in your riding, based on recent polls (I don't know how they get that info though). It has been especially interesting because I am registered in Duceppe's riding. One week ago, it was a clear Bloc choice. Today, it seems as though the NDP has pulled ahead in the polls.
The Council of Canadians has some interesting things on their website too.
http://www.canadians.org/
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