Canada votes on October 14th
Sep 24th, 2008 by Candice
Seems like forever since our last election, but it was like 2 and a half years ago (January 2006). My voting history has been strictly NDP, my entire adult life. I have always voted and I will always vote. Can’t complain about something if you’re not willing to make the smallest effort to improve it. Voting takes less than an hour out of your day, and educating yourself even slightly on the largest parties’ platforms won’t kill you.
Canada’s voter turnout for the last general election was 64.7%. 6 out of 10 people is way too low in my opinion. Not only are there advance voting days, you can even mail in your freakin vote so obviously laziness and inconvenience aren’t the reasons for low voter turnout, people just don’t freakin care and that irritates me. If you don’t care, go live in another country.
Please vote.
(In case anyone cares, the voter turnout for the last US presidential election was 55%.)
My local candidates are:
Dawn Black (New Democratic Party)
Lewis C. Dahlby (Libertarian Party of Canada)
Michelle Hassen (Liberal Party of Canada)
Yonah Martin (Conservative Party of Canada)
Marshall Smith (Green Party of Canada)
Roland Verrier (Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada)
My current task is deciding whether to vote Green or NDP, but I’m thinking it’ll be NDP just because they’re the larger party and I’ve always been happy with their environment platform (which is my main area of focus in every election). I still need to find time myself to read up on the exact platforms…
I briefly visited NDP’s site and Jack Layton refers to what Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion have and have not done, yet doesn’t seem to actually list what HE will do himself… that’s pretty lame.
The site literally states:
“This election, Jack Layton and his team of New Democrats have a better plan to crack down on big polluters, combat climate change, and protect our natural heritage.”
Okay, great, what IS that plan?
On the other hand, Green’s platform made me skeptical when I read -
PDF:
“Use cap and trade, with hard caps, for some large polluters.”
SOME large polluters? Why not ALL large polluters? But at least they have some numbers to present (not that everyday Canadians know how to interpret them or compare them, myself included, but I’d rather have ANY info rather than NO info) and give some basic indication as to their goals. I also found this interesting:
“Support only bio-fuels that actually save carbon emissions and don’t distort food supplies or prices. That means no corn- or grain-based ethanol.”
When I had heard awhile ago about using plants for fuel, it sounded great… but yeah, that’s a good point, obviously this alternative fuel will have an impact in some way as well and it sounds like Green party is saying it’s going to be a negative impact. Wouldn’t mind learning more about that at some point.
I’ll definitely have to dedicate actual time to get more info… tonight is not the night though, I gotta get some sleep.
Oh, interested readers might also want to check out Vote Environment 2008.
I’ve always voted since I was old enough to vote and I tend to drag people along with me. I’ve gotten my mom registered and Kris registered and now at work I’m bugging people to freaking register and get their butts to the polls. I’m going to pick up some voter registration forms over the weekend and take them to work.
55%? Geezus.. that’s too low. Yeah, voting is important, even though in the U.S. I see it as pointless. But, I’m still doing it, at least just so that I can bitch and whine about the administration. :)
Kelly has a good idea, taking forms to work.
Voting is good.
Have you ever heard of Water to Gas? If someone in parliment promoted this, they’d get my vote for sure. Any alternatives would be good.