With election results in, the only certainty is that a large majority of Canadians will wake up this morning feeling disappointed. Conservatives failed to make inroads in Québec (leaving the Bloc Quebecois only one seat shy of their pre-election standing), and so the PC’s must satisfy themselves with another minority government. Liberals hemorrhaged but mostly to the left, giving the NDP a great boost. And while the Green Party continued to increase its base of popular support, it has yet to put a candidate into office. In sum, not much has changed.
If there’s anything newsworthy in Canada’s 40th federal election, it’s the story of voter turnout. Preliminary guesstimates from the CBC put voter turnout at its lowest level in more than a hundred years. I had thought that now, of all times, there were a sufficient number of issues on the table and cutting across a broad range of interests to mobilize the electorate like never before: the environment, a market crash, our military presence in Afghanistan, thinning health care resources for an aging population, threats to arts funding. Surely every voting Canadian could find in one or another of these issues an incentive to vote. Yet it would appear that apathy is a growing response to the smorgasbord of issues that confront us.
The usual reason cited for voting is a kick-in-the-pants brand of guilt: “Men and women died to give you the freedom to vote, so you’d better show them your gratitude by casting a ballot.” However, this claim is untrue. No lives have ever been sacrificed defending Canada’s public institutions because Canada’s public institutions have never been threatened. Ever.
Nevertheless there’s something important about exercising one’s franchise. For one thing, voting can be an expression of solidarity with those who live in parts of the world where the democratic ideal is in a state of siege or doesn’t exist at all. For another thing, voting is one of the few obvious ways that the notion of equality plays itself out in public life: my vote carries as much weight as anyone else’s.
So why the apathy? Here is a list of reasons I’ve come up with:
Cynicism. None of the parties and none of the leaders present meaningful options. Harper is a plastic smooth-talking dweeb with secret pretensions of transforming Canada into a Christian nation. Dion is anything but smooth-talking and, without charisma, who cares what he has to offer. Layton has amazing approval ratings, but he’d unionize even mom and pop convenience stores. And May? Well, also amazing approval ratings, but a vote for Green is a vote down the toilet. What’s the use? They all suck.
Despair. There may be a perception that a single vote makes no difference to outcomes, so why bother? This is the same despair that many feel with respect to environmental issues: I’m just one person; how is my recycling going to help? It’s the public equivalent of low self-esteem. I measure my self-worth in relation to the collective and end up viewing myself as utterly insignificant. This is compounded by the view that most Canadian polity is determined by Washington in any event.
Issue fatigue. Issues should mobilize us. But we’re approaching the saturation point. Our advertising reeks of greenwashing. Every friggin’ corporation wants us to believe its products are wonderful for the environment. Every newscast begins with a further report about our dwindling pension plans. Artists are crying out for money, and hospitals want us to buy their lottery tickets. Enough already. And we press our hands to our ears.
Election fatigue. While Canada’s election process is relatively streamlined, our media have been inundated with news from south of the border. The arguing between left and right has left us tired and confused. Even if we vote, we’ll still have to put up with electioneering. Yawn.
So we sit in our living rooms, watching the TV, beer in hand, wishing there was a hockey game on instead of all this election coverage. Hockey! Now there’s something that would mobilize us. If the Conservatives threatened to ban hockey, that would bring people flocking to the polls.
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Wed, Oct 15, 2008
From the Drainpipe