Veterans’ votes are vital

Seventy years ago, Canadian veterans were truly proud and elated that dictatorial rule over most of the western world was overcome by the democracies, whereby we retained our personal power to elect or reject our nation’s leaders by exercising our inalienable right to vote.

Sad to say, as the years passed by, so, too, did our enthusiasm.

This sorry state of affairs is well highlighted within a recent article by Pete McMartin of the Vancouver Sun, who wrote: “the turnout for the 2011 federal election was second lowest in the country’s history. ... The largest voter turnouts came in the decades after the Second World War. Perhaps the visceral connection between sacrifice and the democratic process was more evident to voters then, because it was literally paid for in blood.”

“Our” war of yore may be long over, but there are still some bitter battles to be fought for our country, within our country — not with bullets, but with ballots.

We are faced with myriad problems that affect us today, and will affect our children and grandchildren in the years to come. Not only what will become of our own vanishing vintage of vets, but also, and equally important, the fate and treatment of our “younger” brothers-inarms, who fought just as hard and bled just as much trying to keep the ersatz peace in perilous places like Somalia, Afghanistan, Bosnia and other places.

Do yourself, your family, your friends and your fellow-vets a favour by going out to vote and getting out the vote. Wolf William Solkin, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue