A Plague On All Their Houses?

Amazing, utterly amazing. Canadians live in one of the most politically, socially, economically stable countries of the world, a liberal democracy that guarantees rights seen in few other places of the world, where asylum-seekers and immigrants come in their hundreds of thousands to make new lives for themselves and their families.

We treasure our vaunted safety and freedoms,justice and opportunities for advancement, an education system and a social atmosphere we revel in. We are free to practise religion or not, to speak as we will, to adhere to traditions not born in Canada; to practise cultural traditions from elsewhere, and to share universal ethics and values in peace.

Are we so placid, so comforted, or perhaps so bored with all that we have, that we take it for granted? It's said that fewer people take the trouble to become involved with the politics of the country, but it's just that element that shapes our society in every conceivable way.

We have an obligation to ourselves, our communities, our children, to ensure we elect to Parliament that political party and that leader of the party whose orientation and platform most closely resembles our own public conscience and social values. Yet in this election just concluded, fewer than 60% of the voting public bothered to cast a ballot.

Close to ten million potential voters decided to steer clear of the vote, obviously having determined that it was of no interest to them. Left it to that other 60% to do the job. Held their personal responsibility and their mandate in utter contempt; benign neglect at the very least.

It's hard to believe that this represented a protest from the public; that such a large group of people, throughout the land, decided to abstain from voting to send a message to Canadian politicians at the federal level [not that provincial or municipal elections are any better attended] that their partisan antics are deplored.

In the riding I live in 72% of eligible voters did their duty to themselves and their country. The lowest turn-out took place in Fort McMurray, where it's felt that the 36% turnout might be due to a large transient population. I'm familiar with that mind-set, when trolling for co-operation in a home where a visiting relative is looking after things, or where the resident home-owner is on the cusp of moving elsewhere.

It's the 'no one at home' syndrome. As though one has an interest in participating in a universal scheme benefiting everyone only if they're on home turf, self-investing. But the thing of it is, if a program is a universal one, then it's for everyone - regardless of where they happen to be at the time - to invest in. And when it comes to voting, that privilege is extended to citizens wherever they reside.

It's our House, too. Parliament belongs to the people. We invest trust in those to whom we extend the greatest number of votes of confidence, enabling them to be declared the majority recipients of the peoples' votes. Upon which they assemble in Parliament, and apply themselves to governing the country. The parties in opposition, not having received sufficient votes to govern, still participating.

We can, and do, chafe at the inadequacies of many of our politicians. This is a large country with a growing population. It has to be managed, our resources conserved and deployed, our population gainfully employed, our children given a future within the nation's best abilities to provide for them. As in any other sphere of endeavour, there are good politicians and poor ones.

The voting franchise cannot be trivialized into an optional, fragmentary-participation exercise. It is incumbent on all Canadian adults of voting age to take the responsibility to advance their opinion through the polls during an election.