Canada is now routinely recording only two-thirds voter turnout and, if disinterest manifests itself as a no-show epidemic Tuesday, this election could dip below 60 per cent for the first time in history.You can't put this one on me... Mrs Neo and I hit the advance poll last week.
See... I hear people talk about how their puny vote doesn't count... and I just shake my head. I guess, in this country anyway, much like indoor plumbing... people tend to take the franchise for granted.
I know a guy... a pretty smart, successful guy... who claims that voting just makes things worse... makes you a party to the crime, so to speak. Of course, he also believes that legalising heroin would separate the men from the boys... so he loses me on two counts. But this is Canada. He's still allowed... however his neighbours might feel about his ideas... to speak his mind.
I guess the point I'm trying to make... is that despite all my beefs about all the stuff that's constantly goin' sideways... we've still got a pretty good thing going on here. The thing is... it's up to you to keep that ball rolling.
So get out there... and be a full-blown Canadian. To my mind, if you don't vote... it's like you've given up the right to criticise all the shit you don't agree with. It's the difference between the free countries and the hellholes.
Freedom isn't free. Get involved.
"I am a Canadian, a free Canadian, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledege to uphold for myself and for all mankind."**********
Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, from the House of Commons, Debates (on the Canadian Bill of Rights), July 1, 1960.
RELATED: Yes, yes, you dumbsticks... we hear you
"When the Communists show up to protest the Nazis, you're supposed to pray for an asteroid, not pick a favourite."Just another reason, folks.
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