Screw The Vote

I believe Canadians will soon be asked to go to the polls and vote for the person or party that they believe will represent them best in the House of Commons. As long as I can remember, during an election politicians have used their incredible skills of persuasion to convince Canadians to vote for them. What better tool of persuasion than a politician’s promise. I am sure that history has a multitude of promises that were made by politicians over the years. As we all know a promise made during an election should be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, Canadians know all to well that after an election a politician’s promise has a hard time surviving in the political world. After an election Canadians have seen politicians humble attitudes turned to arrogance as they revel their hidden agendas. Once again it will be time for politicians to go from listening to Canadians to knowing what is best for the Canadians.

You would think that this upcoming election would be an easy choice for Canadians because of the sponsorship scandal. I believe that defeating the Liberals at the polls and replacing them with the Conservative opposition would keep the Liberals hands out of the cookie jar, but it would certainly not prevent another scandal. I have yet to hear the oppositions plan to prevent their party if elected from taking advantage of opportunities that the Liberals have taken advantage of.

I firmly believe that the Liberals do not deserve another mandate from the Canadian people because of the obvious, but even though the newly formed Conservative party has yet to hold the rains of power, can the Conservatives claim they are scandal free? Before the old Progressive Conservative party and the Alliance party merged and formed the new Conservative party, Steven Harper and Peter MacKay did nothing to prevent the Alliance party members from joining the old Progressive Conservative party to skew the vote when Peter MacKay's old Constrictive party was voting on whether or not to merge with the Alliance party. And especially after Peter MacKay assured David Orchard that under his leader ship he would not support a merger with the Alliance. If the new Conservative party forms the next Government, Peter MacKay would undoubtedly be a high ranking official in the new Conservative Caucus and will Canadians be able to trust his word? If Peter Mackay puts it in writing you better get it notarized. I know that Steven Harper and Peter MacKay's fore mentioned questionable acts are far from the magnitude of the Sponsorship scandal, but I think the potential for scandal is certainly there.

So what choices do Canadians really have at the polls? Well there is always the NDP party. I for one am not ready to trust my vote with the competence of the NDP party, simply because I think that their programs and their policies are far too costly for a country that is trying to dig themselves out of debt. The NDP has always claimed to be for the little guy, but are they really? And as far as the Bloc goes I do not live in Quebec so the Bloc is certainly not a choice for me. Even If I did live in Quebec I would not vote for them because I would not want to separate from the country I love. There is nothing wrong with Canada, we just need better politicians. I think the media's only interest in an election is putting their spin on the truth to boost their ratings.

Now I come from a riding where the largest amount of the votes are split between the Liberals and the NDP, because of this the Conservatives have won the seat in my riding for years. But the Liberals and the NDP combined hold a considerable majority of the votes, but because of the division of the majority of the votes between the Liberal and NDP the majority of people in my riding are not represented.

I have decided not to vote in the next election for the reasons that I have mentioned in this blog. I believe I have no choice. I certainly do not believe in voting for the lesser of the evils. If you owned a business and you needed to hire someone to run your business and all that showed up at the interview were crooks would you pick the one that stole the least? I would rather wait for another applicant. A person who steals a chocolate bar compared to a person that steals millions of dollars IS STILL A CROOK and the potential is still there. And I feel I am not alone by not voting in the next election.

According to Elections Canada, in the past four elections the turnout at the polls have been declining. In 1993 only 69.6% of Canadians bothered to cast a vote. In 1997 67.0% and in 2000 61.2%. In 2004 60.9%. So nearly 40% of Canadians are not bothering to cast a vote.

Some people think that because I am not voting I do not have a say. This is not true, in Canada you have the right to vote and you also have the right not to vote. That is what freedom is all about. I stand up for those who wish to vote and I stand up for those who wish not to vote. There is no rule, regulation or law that says those who vote are they only ones who have a say.

No matter what your reasons are for voting or not voting I would like to hear your comments.