Comment 13591

By rusty (registered) - website | Posted October 31, 2007 at 11:20:26

Hi Ventrems,

What was your girlfriend's opinion?! :) To Ryan's point, I think the low turnout was more to do with apathy than an overall satisfaction with life in Canada. Whenever I talk to people about a political issue I guarantee there is at least one thing they are furious and passionate about. Despite our relative comfort, I don't think we humans will ever be 'satisfied'.

The problem is there is a lack of excitement in our political realm. A lack of any sense that we can do anything to affect the kind of change we want to see. We have put our energies into, and cast our votes for, parties with high hopes and big promises in the past, and we have been let down. Our country is essentially being run by one of two parties and neither is selling me a vision I can get excited about and neither is likely to do half of what they say even if they were!

Sure, whenever a party finds a 'wedge issue' or something to get us excited about voter turnout will probably increase. But that's no way to run a government. We should be 'excited' about all the 'little' issues that many of us find way too easy too ignore - poverty, efficient municipal services, how our cities grow, improved quality of life, 3rd world support - even the environment is becoming a forgotten issue right now. And we should be pursuing a vision that gets us excited about the future instead of just anticipating more of the same.

As far as the MMP debacle goes I feel that this opportunity has now been put back years. Our current system does not provide transparancy or a sense of connectedness with our government. Our democracry, as it 'works' today - is broken and this is the fundamental issue behind the low turnout numbers.

I heard a marketing guru explain that the MMP advertising dollars should have been split equally between the pro and con organizations. They could have argued it out over the airwaves and it would have made for a more interesting and effective campaign. All for nought now...

As for the point behind this piece, I believe that all change starts with an argument at the dinner table. If we can't foster a culture of debate and disagreement - at the grassroots level - then we'll never be in charge of our destiny.

Cheers

Ben

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