It’s dead easy to vote! SO VOTE!
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- I’m Canadian and I love Canada. But I’ve never voted.
However this year, it’ll be different. I’m voting. But I have a confession to make:
One of the reasons I’ve never bothered before is because I thought it would be a complicated process with all kinds of forms to fill in and declarations to make before I’ d be eligible.
But that’s not the case. It’s dead easy.
All you have to do is turn up. End of story. Finito.
As Canadian satirist Rick Mercer says on his blog »»»
Ignore all those Elections Canada ads that make it seem like you need quantum physics to vote.
In this country you do not need to be registered in advance to vote.
Men died on the beaches so you could vote.
All you need to do is to show up with some official looking mail with your address on it, your student card and your ID.
Don’t take no for an answer and democracy is yours.
At the beginning of the week, “We’re counting on P2P People Power — Canadian P2P People Power, young Canadian P2P People Power — to make the difference,” I said in a post in which I promised to devote p2pnet to the Canadian elections until the results are known.
I went on »»»
“Young people don’t vote,” said a friend when I told him what I intended to do. “But they like to take stands and do neat techy things …”
I disagree. They’ll vote.
They know as well as anyone else we don’t need the Liberals running things any more than we need the Conservatives at the helm.
We’ve been there and done that.
Look where it’s gotten us.
‘You’re completely off the radar’
We’re on the final Canadas 2008 election countdown and, “all the political parties are busy courting every special interest group in the country, no matter how small,” observes Canadian satirist Mercer.
“If you’ve got one leg, two kids, you work on a farm, the parties, they have a pitch for you,” he states –
– “unless of course you happen to be a student, in which case you’re completely off the radar – not a peep from any of the leaders.”
Education wasn’t even mentioned in the recent TV debate, Mercer points out, going on »»»
Now I’m not saying that any politician would ever come out and say they don’t care about the student vote. When they’re pushed they can all talk about educational reform and crushing debt until the cows come home; but at the ten minute mark they all do the same thing. They stop, they lean in like they’re telling you some sort of secret and they say, “you know, it’s a real shame. But students in this country, they just don’t vote.” Which believe me is code for “we don’t care about students. We never have, we never will.”
Now this is a perfect example of where young people can learn from their elders. And by elders I mean the elderly. As in senior citizens. Because believe me, those folks, they vote. Which is why the old age home is the natural habitat for any campaigning politician. No exaggeration, in the 30 days since this campaign began John Baird has spent 26 of them in an old age home. Okay slight exaggeration.
Now I’m not saying that students themselves aren’t important to politicians. Oh they are. After all you’re the ones that deliver the lawn signs. But past that you could be on fire for all they care. So my advice to university students: never mind your civic responsibility, seeing as you’re such a low priority in this country, you should show up and vote out of spite if for no other reason.
And believe me, there are a million students in this country. You show up and vote, elections they’ll never be the same again. Education will never be left off the agenda.
And for all of you students out there who are living away from home for the first time, ignore all those Elections Canada ads that make it seem like you need quantum physics to vote. In this country you do not need to be registered in advance to vote. Men died on the beaches so you could vote. All you need to do is to show up with some official looking mail with your address on it, your student card and your ID. Don’t take no for an answer and democracy is yours.
“And not your fake ID either, your real one,” Mercer adds.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Rick Mercer – Spite, the most powerful of motivators, October 7, 2008
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October 13th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Vote vote vote! I’ve bled NDP orange for a number of years, and continue to do so, but it is important that each eligible Canadian votes. I don’t care who you vote for, but I do care if you vote. Even if you don’t think your vote matters, it does! It really is a simple process.
Young people are most likely to ignore the election. In most cases it is the false beliefs that a) it doesn’t count, b) it is too complicated.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
In addition to education, I also noted very little coverage* of broadband & connectiviity (Canada has fallen from #2 to #10 over 5 years) and privacy issues. When I pressed my local candidates in my admitadly rural county, none had an answer though the incumbant Conservative candidate thankfully didn’t try to feign knowledge.
None, that is, except for the Christian Heritage Party. Hey not only understood that as well as net neutrality, he had all the right answers. Alas, the official party view on global warming (that it’s a myth) and their views on abortion along with the fact I’d like to see church & state seperate, has certainly tempered his response in my mind.
*I’ll admit to not watching all of the candidates debate on TV. I was waiting for Mrs. Palin to flub something badly.