Canadians will be going to the polls Oct. 14 to exercise their franchise. So far no theme has emerged. During the past few elections there has always been an election theme.
Low turnout was one. Last time, CBC radio worried for weeks about how low our turnout was going to be. Zealous reporters interviewed simpleton after simpleton who said that they won't be voting, have never voted, and how voting is of no use because their vote won't 'count.' Where do they find these people?
Low turnout doesn't bother me. On the contrary, I like it. If people are dumb enough not to vote, then maybe they shouldn't. It's elegantly Darwinian in its simplicity.
Besides, it makes my vote count for more.
Disaffected youth was another popular theme. In 2004 the Globe and Mail jumped on the youthful voter apathy bandwagon. They featured a star youthful voter, a political science student, to represent the undecided voter.
Mr. Poly Sci wasn't undecided about who to vote for, you understand. He was undecided about whether to vote at all. Afflicted with the self-absorbed ennui of youth, he agonized endlessly about the whole point of the exercise. If we are to believe the column inches devoted to this 'typical' detached young Canadian, he spent more time worrying about whether to spend five minutes alone with his ballot in a cardboard box than most Canadians spent wondering how to cope with their children for the summer holiday.
At the time, I thought, "Poly, please don't vote!" I wanted more disaffected youths not to vote. As mentioned above, I love it when other people don't vote.
Another theme that captivated voters was negative fear tactics. Canadians, we were told, were facing a stark choice. Our stark choice was between "Canadian values" and a scary hidden agendum from right-wing Christians who believed in dinosaurs. They didn't scare me though. What's the worst thing that can happen if they win? They'll turn the other cheek, that's what.
It did leave me wondering whether left-wing Christians believed in dinosaurs though.
So far in this election there are no themes. The puffin doesn't really count. I suspect that Canadians are so mesmerized by the U.S. election, we're having trouble paying attention to our own. The Yanks have all the good stark choices this year. And the fact that their vice-presidential debate is the same day and time as our own leaders' debate doesn't help the situation up here.
In the absence of themes, maybe we should talk about issues? I know I know, former PM Kim Campbell said that elections are not a good time to discuss issues, but what the heck, we've tried everything else.
Examples of issues are: health care, economics, child care, environment, taxes, crime, immigration, foreign policy, ethics, defense, infrastructure, national unity, helicopters, etc.
Helicopters?
Q: How many government bureaucrats does it take to buy a helicopter?
A: There is no answer yet.
Joke, ha ha.
But the point is that issues are things that really matter to people.
One of my issues is electoral reform.
No. I'm not going to launch into an incomprehensible rant about proportional representation or single transferable votes. Not yet anyway. There's something way more important we need to do first, hopefully with less trauma than changing the way we vote.
How about making all our votes equal? I want my vote to count the same as everybody else's vote. I want representation by population. It's fundamental to any democracy.
As it stands right now, in Canada, no one's vote is equal with anyone else's. The amount of rep you get for your pop depends on where you live. For example, Prince Edward Island (pop. about 135,000) gets four Members of Parliament (MPs). Lulu Island where I live (pop. about 150,000) gets one and a half MPs. So it takes fewer than 35,000 PEIers to elect an MP, but it takes more than 110,000 Luluites to elect one.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is just not fair.
I've got more ideas about electoral reform, but first we need rep by pop. Even proportional representation needs rep by pop, because without it, guess what? The whiners and snivellers are right. Their votes won't count -- not as much as some others anyway.
But this fact won't stop me from voting -- early and often -- just like Daddy always told me to.
Marilyn Baker is a writer who lives in Richmond, British Columbia.
PREVIOUS
