The elections have come and gone, and it went so fast with so little hype that it feels like they never even happened.
What was this election all about? It seemed pointless to call this election and bring voters out to the polls when most of us knew there would be no change.
It was well known that Prime Minister Stephen Harper called this election looking for a majority government but Canadians had a good hunch that wouldn’t happen.
The results of the federal election, as predicted, brought nothing significant to the Canadian Parliament. The Conservatives gained 19 seats, the Liberals did not do so well, the NDP were able to gain a few seats and the Bloc Quebecois still has 50 seats.
So, the bottom line is, there was a lot of money spent for basically the same thing as we had before.
One thing that was surprising in the province of Alberta happened in Edmonton when the NDP took a seat from the Conservatives by about 400 votes.
Stephen Harper has been a decent prime minister, level headed, smart and has shown a clear direction with his plans since he became leader of the country, but this whole $300 million election turned out to be a gong show that no one seemed to really care about.
There seemed to be no hard hitting issues, or out-to-lunch promises, just the same topics as always that tended to get nowhere in the debates. Nothing, really, to light a fire under voters and make them want to vote.
The level of caring was evident at the polls. With only 37 days to make a clear decision of who to vote for on Oct. 14, only 59.1 per cent of registered Canadian voters showed up to the voting stations. Kudos to those who did take the time to exercise democracy and there’s no excuse not to vote but it can be hard to want to vote when the election comes out of the blue and seems pointless.
This year’s election saw the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history? Why does it seem that less and less people go to the polls with each passing election? If that’s true, what are the reasons for it? Complacency? Hectic lives? It doesn’t seem that almost half of the country can be too busy that day to vote, so what is it?
In Alberta the number of voters was higher than the national percentage at 52.9 per cent but this sad percentage did not help the numbers in Canada.
In the local Wetaskiwin riding the voting percentage was low as well. Of the 79,046 registered voters in the district only 42,170 people marked their ballot.
The number of voters this election would appall those who fought for voting rights. When suffrages for women’s right to vote gained victory around 1916 it was huge in the country and women exercised that right. Women of Asian and First Nations descent were not even permitted to vote until after the Second World War. This was a huge feat for women in Canada that made history. Now, this right for women is not even 100 years old yet and voting has already lost its appeal.
Many people in the world are not allowed to even speak their opinion, never mind voting. Even their thoughts could get them killed. So, how did we as a country become so spoiled that we take advantage of our freedom?
I guess it’s not all bad though. There seems to be an upside to this all. With almost half the country not voting they have no right to complain about the government.
For the next election, let’s smarten up and get our act together. No matter how dull it seems or how ridiculous it looks, or how busy you are honour the freedom this country is known for and vote.