(Before you say anything - yes I know I'm a nerd. And yes I also had a glass of wine in the other hand.)
I was wrong. I was heartbroken. I have so much respect for the democratic process and the right that we are given as Canadians to vote. I have the utmost respect for all the Canadians that voted.
At the end of the night when it was announced that the Conservatives had cinched a majority government I thought for a moment - is this really what Canada wants? Is this the direction we want to take as Canadians? Living in a place where same sex marriage is outlawed, where war is valued above peace keeping, and where a government can be found in contempt of the law without penalty?
So...what happened? I refuse to believe (and call me naive if you'd like) that this is what we want as a country. And hey - maybe I'm wrong.
40% of Canadians Didn't Even Vote
Only 61.4% of Canadians Voted. Up from an all time low of 58.4% in 2008. Source: National PostComparatively in 2010, 80% of Canadians watched the game seven hockey finals in the Winter Olympics - 80%! (Now I LOVE hockey - BUT - surely we should be able to get more than 60% of Canadians out to vote to determine the future of our country if we can get 80% to watch a hockey game.)
Lack of Media Coverage on the Core Issues
On the night of the election, the media was buzzing about how people on twitter via #tweettheresults were breaking the election laws. What was not covered on any station I tuned into (and what was being heavily discussed on twitter), was how on the day of the election Stephen Harper broke election laws by openly campaigning on election day.
This is just one example of a lack of coverage...which brings me to my last point....
Lack of Awareness due to the Harper PR Machine
I will gladly applaud the efficiency and performance of the Harper PR Machine - every moment of his entire campaign was scripted, from his responses to questions, to the exact same speech he gave at every stop in his campaign. As Rick Mercer described:
To get a feel for the Harper campaign you only need a few hours. The differences from one event to the other are minuscule. In English Canada they start each event by singing “O Canada,” and Stephen Harper tells the crowd he’s proud to lead a party that starts every event this way no matter where they are in the country. In Quebec they skip this part and they hide the Canadian flags in the plane. Barring this nationalism of convenience, if you have seen one Harper event you have seen them all. The Harper campaign is far and away the most disciplined, the most professional and the most scripted. Every word is on a teleprompter, it is delivered in exactly the same way, and the Prime Minister does something I have, in a lifetime of watching live performers onstage, never seen before: he actually stops and sips his water in the same spot every time. Nothing is left to chance. Either that or he is a hologram on a loop. (Read his full article here)Combined with a lack of awareness and understanding of the core issues (ask five people right now what "Contempt of Parliament" actually means - I dare you) - how do people really know what they're voting for?
(Note: I totally acknowledge that there are many people who do have an understanding and voted Conservative regardless.)
What the heck do we do now?
Well I for one am going to (attempt to) take these two issues head on, I've started this site with the intention to bring awareness as well as understanding to the actions that our government takes in hopes of triggering more people to vote - specifically in 18-32 year olds who are the least likely to vote.
What do you think? Did the election results go as you would have hoped? Do you agree or disagree? Would love to hear your thoughts. :)
