Street Level

My 14-year-old is angry he couldn’t vote.
He studied the issues, asked good questions at the dinner table and, in the car on the way to school, read the few campaign brochures that came to the house before deciding who he wanted to represent Kamloops and to run the country.
He never told me who he had decided was worthy of his support.
And he was definitely unimpressed when I explained to him he can’t vote because he’s only 14.
I reassured him that in the next federal election (well, maybe two from now, since we’re no doubt going to be forced into another one by the hubris of the to-be-chosen new Liberal leader), he’d be more informed than many.
A friend’s daughter, another teenager nowhere near legal voting age, also studied the various platforms, peppered her mom with questions, debated with mom on some of the issues and, on election night, was channel-hopping to hear as much as she could about the federal election.
She also wasn’t happy with the explanation her age precluded her from voting — although there was a straw vote, based on political parties only, at her school in which she was delighted to cast a pseudo-ballot.
At first, I thought it was interesting and, from a mom’s point of view, reassuring the kid and some of his friends are showing an interest in their world at such a young age.
I wasn’t surprised my friend’s daughter was similarly engaged, since my friend is also one of those people who doesn’t just sit back and complain. She gets involved.
But now, I’m starting to wonder why we don’t let my son and other young people who want to vote — and who can demonstrate a basic understanding of the issues — this right because at least they’d use it.
They are unlike the 40 per cent of Canadians who heaped shame on the graves of our forefathers who fought for our rights — and didn’t bother to vote.
Is that fact not shameful?
It takes little time to go to a polling booth. We don’t even have to work all that hard to find out what the issues are, who the candidates are, what they stand for and why they think we should vote for them.
Just read a newspaper, listen to a news broadcast or maybe ask your teenager.
The voter turnout on Tuesday was the lowest in our history of voting, even lower than the 61 per cent who turned up at the polls in 2004 to get rid of Paul Martin and started us on this idiocy of minority government after minority government.
And it’s at least a generation from the record-high 78 per cent that gave John Diefenbaker the largest majority government the country has ever seen.
Maybe there’s a correlation there?
And, if you want to know the national breakdown, here are the stats, in order of apathy: Newfoundland and Labrador, 48.1 per cent; Northwest Territories, 48.6 per cent; Nunavut, 49.4 per cent; Alberta, 52.9 per cent; Manitoba, 56.8 per cent; Ontario, 59.1 per cent; Saskatchewan, 59.4 per cent; Nova Scotia, 60.7 per cent; British Columbia, 61 per cent; Quebec, 61.1 per cent; New Brunswick, 62.8 per cent; Yukon, 63.7 per cent; and P.E. I., 69.5 per cent.
Kind of ironic the provinces with the most seats — and the ones who have returned us to this minority nightmare — also had some of the worst voter turnout, while the have-not provinces had some of the best.
Among the reasons for not voting people have put forward include the issues were too complex, the campaign was about personalities, it’s hard to tell truth from spin and people are election-weary.
As my mother would have said, those are lame excuses. If anything, they’re just rationalizations.
I was raised to value the right to vote. In all my years of voting ability, I’ve missed one civic election — because we hadn’t lived in Kamloops long enough to qualify.
Voters have earned the right to criticize and praise for the next few months this government is in place.
Those of you who didn’t vote — don’t bother criticizing this government.
You may have the right to vote but, by not exercising it, you haven’t earned the right to complain.
dale@kamloopsthisweek.com


© Copyright 2007 Kamloops This Week

Posted by Dale at 10:52 a.m. Comments