Democracy: use or lose it
If you don’t believe this election matters, here are two words: Donald Trump
Recently I was in the car listening to Ontario today, the CBC noon hour phone-in show with the affable host Rita Celli.
The topic was the Ontario election which had just kicked off and caller after caller was phoning in to weigh in on the slow-motion car accident that was unfolding across the province.
Not surprisingly, many callers were confused — “No, I’m not really sure who is running in my riding”; frustrated — “I don’t like any of my choices”; undecided — ‘For the first time, I’m not sure who I am going to vote for”; or just crazy — “I think I’ll vote Green.”
Just kidding about that last part. You don’t have to be crazy to vote Green, but considering their chances of winning, it might help.
Confused or not, at least people were calling in. The guest, a polling expert, told Celli that in fact, most citizens in Ontario don’t care enough to even bother to vote. In the last election only 51 per cent of Ontarians cast a ballot. I had to think about that for a minute: half of us, one out of every two people walking around the province, couldn’t work up the energy to help decide who would run the place for four years. Listen, I’m as sick of the politicians and the campaign as anyone, and it’s only the first week, but not even voting? Let’s take a look at the reasons people give for not exercising their franchise in a democracy.
“I’m too busy. I don’t have time to pay attention to politics.”
OK, if you are working two or three jobs for 16 or 18 hours a day to provide for your family, take a pass. You’ve earned it. But for everyone else, are you kidding? You have time to play Call of Duty for four hours after work, or watch three episodes of Daredevil on Netflix every night or just aimlessly scroll through your Facebook feed to see how much better your “friends” are doing than you, but you don’t have time to figure out who might be best to run the provincial government?
Unless you’re in a lab on a fast track to discovering a cure for cancer, believe me, you’ve got time. I’m as lazy and distractible a person as you will ever meet (just ask my wife), so some days I just ask Google Home to play me the morning radio news and about two minutes later, I can pretend to be current with current events with the best of them.
2. “I’m sick of politicians. I can’t stand listening to them.” They’re all boring, pompous or obnoxious.”
Well, so are most of your relatives, but you still have family Christmas. Listen, if we stopped talking to everyone who was ever annoying and tiresome, who’d be married? (Note to wife: Not you honey. You are extremely interesting and I love your family. They can come at Christmas too.) You think regular people aren’t boring and obnoxious? Listen to Ontario Today for five minutes and call me. The campaign is only about five weeks long. If you’ve put up with your boss for a decade, you can pay attention to three blowhards for a month.
3. “I’m just not interested in politics.”
Well, frankly me neither, but I am interested in some other stuff — like health care, education, and safe drinking water for everyone and I’m especially interested in what the heck that NDP woman was thinking when she went up to a guy’s hotel room in the middle of the night. Maybe I’ll wait for the video, “Socialists Gone Wild!”
But the point is that not being interested in politics is not the same as not being interested in the political system. I’m not interested in banking, but I’m interested in my bank account.
Anyway, voting is the single most powerful thing you can do in a democracy, but more importantly it gives you the right to vigorously whine and complain about the government for the next four years. If you don’t cast a ballot, think of all the fun you’ll miss.
And if you are still convinced that none of this matters and it’s always the same old thing again and again, I have two words for you.
Donald Trump.