The election is almost here. Above all else, this means one thing: if you haven’t already cast a ballot at the advance polls, you’d better start thinking about where and how you’re going to vote.
I realize that I approach elections from a slightly different perspective than most of my fellow students. I’m extremely passionate about politics, and I’ve already spent hundreds of hours since last October volunteering for our local Liberal candidate Andy Fillmore.
It doesn’t matter, though. Whether you’ve been backing a candidate since they first considered running for the nomination, or you still don’t have any idea who you’re voting for, it is hugely important that you get out there and vote on Election Day.
I cannot express how important it is. It shouldn’t take gimmicks or goofy campaigns to convince us either. We should be excited. We should be running out to the polls on Election Day as enthusiastically as we would if they were handing out free iPhones to the first hundred voters.
Think about it this way: less than a century ago, almost nobody reading this article would have been allowed to vote. Size yourself up against the following eligibility criteria:
- Voters had to be over 21, which would knock off the majority of undergraduate students.
- Voters had to be men, which would disqualify about 55% of the Gazette’s current readership.
- In most provinces, voters had to own property or meet certain minimum income standards, requirements that would finish off almost every debt-saddled student who survived the first two cuts.
Made it through that gauntlet? Congratulations, you could vote … unless you were the “wrong” race, say, a First Nations voter, or someone of Asian descent living in British Columbia.
That’s infuriating to think about, isn’t it? If someone came up to you today and told you that these were the new rules, you’d march on Parliament in a righteous anger. Students would hold mock elections with 100 per cent turnout rates. We’d fight tooth and nail until we won back our rights and restored the equality we all hold so dear.
People did have to fight that exact battle during the twentieth century. We are the beneficiaries of decades of struggle for electoral equality. We didn’t have to expend the blood and tears ourselves, so maybe it’s harder for us to understand how precious and hard-won the right to vote is, but that doesn’t mean we have any less of an obligation to exercise it in honour of those who came before us.
This is usually the part where someone brings up the usual excuses for staying home: that voting is pointless, that nothing ever changes, or that there is “no one to vote for.”
Let’s put these tired old arguments to rest, shall we?
There are five people running in Dalhousie’s federal riding, from Harper Conservatives to Marxist-Leninists and everything in between. Take the time to read the platforms, and you will find at least one candidate you can stomach supporting.
Once you find your candidate, vote, because voting is never pointless. Even if your preferred candidate has no chance this time around, the very act of voting still makes a point. It shows that you care. That you are engaged with the system. That the sacrifices made by those who came before you were not in vain. It sends the government the message that you, and collectively we, are serious and vigilant, and that our opinions are worth considering when making decisions about the future of the country. By voting, you are doing your part to ensure the health of our democracy.
Is the system perfect? No, we still have work to do to improve representation, eliminate fears of “vote splitting,” and equalize the effective value of all votes.
Do parties often get elected and then fail to live up to expectations, creating disappointment loops that breed cynicism in those longing for change? Sure, we’ve all seen it happen.
Not voting doesn’t do a thing to improve the system, though. Not. One. Thing. Do you think Stephen Harper looks at the numbers after the election and thinks, “Gosh, student turnout is abysmal, I’d better abolish the first-past-the-post system and fundamentally alter how I govern!”
Probably not, right?
If you want change, fight for it, like the generations before us fought for universal suffrage. You’d better vote first though, because passively surrendering your rights on Election Day isn’t exactly a strong, inspirational way to start the struggle to strengthen our democracy.
The polls open this Monday. Get out there and do your part!
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