I am told that using capital letters in a text-based message is "shouting" so here it goes:
PLEASE VOTE! PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE! FIND THE TIME.BOOK A FEW MINUTES. SET ASIDE A MOMENT. PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE!!
I know this is in direct contrast to the message from Arthur Williams last week but voting is important. Here's why:
Participation rates in provincial elections have been declining over the past few decades. For example, in 1983, there were 1,947,617 eligible voters in the province and 1,373,018 chose to do so for a participation rate of 70.50 per cent.
In 2013, of the 3,279,141 eligible voters, only 1,813,912 bothered to cast a vote or 55.32 per cent. This was an improvement on the 50.99 per cent participation rate for the 2009 election but it is still a significant decline from the 1980s and earlier. Indeed, each election, the percentage of voters willing to spend the 10 minutes or so it takes to vote seems to be going down.
What does it say about our democracy if only half the people in the province are willing to make a choice? If we are to live in a democracy, it is critical we take part. It is critical for us to stand up and be counted on voting day.
When 45 per cent of us do not show up at the polls, what message are we sending? It would seem the message is we, the electorate, don't care. But we do!
Whether it is adequate funding for the K-12 system, waitlists within our healthcare, the Site C dam, corporate and union donations to political parties, the environment, regulation of the housing markets, affordable day care, job creation, toll bridges, higher taxes, lower taxes, MSP premiums, carbon taxes, we all have some thoughts on how things should be done. And if not any of these issues then others which are just as important and just as political.
Politics is the fine art of negotiating collective governance. We all engage in politics everyday - from negotiating with our kids to managing in our workplace to engaging with friends. One could make the argument politics is boring or unimportant but it is the only way we know how to engage en masse.
Voting, in a democracy, is one of the key components of our political structure. Especially as we live in a representational democracy. We vote for a single person to represent our views in the larger context of government. It is hugely important the person we elect has views compatible with the majority of the voters they represent. And the argument the candidate or party who represents your views never wins so why bother voting has got to be the most ridiculous there is. After all, if you don't vote for them, then they definitely will never have the chance to win!
SO PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE!
History tells us we once took our responsibility to vote much more seriously. We have been told we are collectively suffering from "election fatigue." That voting doesn't matter. Or our vote doesn't count. Some pundits even point to the "Donald Trump effect." Over the past year, I have heard more discussions about the American election and about Trump as President than about the British Columbia election or who will be our premier. Maybe we are "electioned" out.
Maybe there is a sense of futility. Maybe democracy is truly dead. The B.C. Liberals received 44.14 per cent of the popular vote or just 24.42 per cent of the votes which could have been cast by eligible voters in 2013. The last time the NDP won, they received only 23.32 per cent of all eligible votes. Do we want a government where three quarters of eligible voters have not voted for those in power? Regardless of who forms the government, isn't it better if they represents more than the views of one out of every four people in this province?
Put another way, what does it say that almost twice as many people couldn't be bothered to vote than actually elected the governing party?
PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE!
I was talking with a friend about voter turnout last week, and he made the observation that we don't exercise our franchise at a time when there are people in countries around the world fighting - and dying - for the very right we take for granted and don't use. If nothing else, the actions of the people struggling to have their voices heard in the Middle East and around the world should shame us into realizing just how important voting is.
Democracy is a participatory process. It is hard work. It only functions with the engagement of the people. But it is the best system we have got.
This is our chance to be heard.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE!
