To Vote or Not to Vote

It shouldn’t be a question.

I have as much faith in politicians as I do in television evangelists. The US President has proven that a good man can be completely ineffective when he rises too high in the ranks. I believe that many people get into politics for the right reasons, but once they’re in, they find themselves trapped in a dysfunctional system that thwarts any effort to change it for the better.

This does not mean that we should give up trying.

All over town, I’m seeing the word “Harper” stencilled onto STOP signs. I laugh at them, but I know it’s no joke. It’s time for a change. Voting to get someone out of office, however, takes as much thought as voting to get someone in. If I back the wrong horse, I could help to split the opposition and result in another run for the baddies. It may be a minority run, but they’ll still be on the wrong side of the House.

It could be wiser to support the party with the best chance of ousting the incumbent. A new minority government might be at the mercy of a coalesced opposition (assuming that Harper can work with anyone outside of his party), but they will be new. As in different.

Or perhaps I should vote for the party whose platform best matches my concerns. A perfect match won’t be likely, but I’m good with the best of seven. I’m a single woman who owns no property and is close to retirement, who believes that arts programs are critical to the health and well-being of society, that health care should include proactive practices such as homeopathy and acupuncture, that a gay couple is entitled to the same rights and privileges as a straight couple, and that education should be fully-funded. Our children are our future, after all, and the means to pay for schooling does not ensure that the brightest minds apply. And the environment is in dire need of nurturing, rather than being subjected to ongoing abuse for industrial gain.

Whatever my objective, on October 19, I am going to vote.

Being a single woman who owns no property, there was a time in the not so distant past when I would not have been allowed to vote at all. This is important, but it’s not my motivation. Neither is the fact that wars have been fought and blood has been shed to ensure that democracy prevails. Nope, I am haunted by the provincial election that put Gordon Campbell in office for a third, count ’em third, term as Premier of BC.

In that election, the majority of voters voted Liberal. I couldn’t believe it. Granted, Victoria is an NDP stronghold, but still, everyone in BC sounded like they were fed up with this guy and his Trump-sized ego. Even his own caucus was tired of him, yet the majority re-elected him?

It’s all in the wording. He was re-elected by the majority of voters, not the majority of eligible voters. It turned out that fewer than half of those registered BCers who were reportedly sick of him didn’t even bother to turn out on election day. So, His Royal Heinie got in by the grace of less than one quarter of those who were empowered to vote him out of a job.

Three-quarters of us got what we deserved. The rest of us tried, but were overwhelmed by those who exercised their hard-fought right to choose their government body.

You have a voice. Use it. Even if your candidate loses, you will have had your say.

October 19, 2015. Vote. Please.