A civic duty
My parents inculcated my brother and me with a strong sense of duty. This namely includes the number 1 civic duty: voting. Every time we near election time, the news start talking about how the participation rate is declining steadily. I hear things such as:
"Canada is near the bottom of the industrialized-world turnout league tables."
"[...] in the 2000 federal election, the participation rate among voters older than 58 was greater than 80 percent, but for 18- to 20-year-olds it was a dismal 22 percent ."
"[...] age is one of the best predictors of electoral participation—better than income, educational attainment, interest in political issues or perception of voting as a civic duty."
This shames me. Where is my generation while the fate of the country is being decided? Playing World of Warcraft? Why are they so convinced that it makes no difference? The general attitude seems to be "they're all corrupted anyway so who cares?" I'm sorry but, even if we adopt this as a true premise, we should still care. Stephen Harper corruption is definitely very different from Paul Martin corruption. It matters. I feel like screaming it at the top of my lungs. IT MATTERS! VOTE DAMNIT!
Do you, non-voters, really think that all your elders believe the electoral candidates will do any of the things they promise? Do you think that one gets more naïve with age? So why is the participation rate clearly proportional to age? Because we understand that blue garbage is different from red garbage and we want to be able to choose which stench would be more tolerable.
I'm registered with my mom's address. Last year I had just moved back from Newfoundland and my income tax report was done under my mom's address. So today, I need to drive 50 km through the city, in heavy traffic, to reach the little piece of paper where I will put my X. Then I will drive back 50km, through the city, in even heavier traffic. All that to vote for a party that is guaranteed never to be in power on the federal level. And you know what? I still look forward to it.
"Canada is near the bottom of the industrialized-world turnout league tables."
"[...] in the 2000 federal election, the participation rate among voters older than 58 was greater than 80 percent, but for 18- to 20-year-olds it was a dismal 22 percent ."
"[...] age is one of the best predictors of electoral participation—better than income, educational attainment, interest in political issues or perception of voting as a civic duty."
This shames me. Where is my generation while the fate of the country is being decided? Playing World of Warcraft? Why are they so convinced that it makes no difference? The general attitude seems to be "they're all corrupted anyway so who cares?" I'm sorry but, even if we adopt this as a true premise, we should still care. Stephen Harper corruption is definitely very different from Paul Martin corruption. It matters. I feel like screaming it at the top of my lungs. IT MATTERS! VOTE DAMNIT!
Do you, non-voters, really think that all your elders believe the electoral candidates will do any of the things they promise? Do you think that one gets more naïve with age? So why is the participation rate clearly proportional to age? Because we understand that blue garbage is different from red garbage and we want to be able to choose which stench would be more tolerable.
I'm registered with my mom's address. Last year I had just moved back from Newfoundland and my income tax report was done under my mom's address. So today, I need to drive 50 km through the city, in heavy traffic, to reach the little piece of paper where I will put my X. Then I will drive back 50km, through the city, in even heavier traffic. All that to vote for a party that is guaranteed never to be in power on the federal level. And you know what? I still look forward to it.
posted by Nathalie at 9:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home