I thought I would take advantage of the election and share my thoughts, as a first-time voter, on the various things that are happening during this election. It’s also a good way to avoid studying for exams.
Today I wanted to talk about something that everyone seems to be talking about, Voter Apathy. Every single election I remember, voter apathy is an issue. The big after-election headlines are the ones bemoaning the poor voter turnout , particularly among the Youth. In the last election, 37.4 percent of Canadians aged 18-24 voted. During the 2008 election (an election with the worst voter turnout in the history of Canada), my 16 year-old self was perplexed and outraged. I was so upset that I hadn’t been old enough to vote, and the people who were lucky enough to vote weren’t doing it. Like every stary-eyed, under-aged, young activist, I vowed that I would vote in every election that I could when I turned 18.
But now that I’m old enough to vote, I can honestly say I don’t care. Now that’s not to say that I won’t vote, I know all the stuff about it being my democratic right and how my great great uncle was blown up in World War I so that I could vote, but on May 2nd, I won’t be voting because of a greater sense of duty to my country. I will be voting because society and Rick Mercer have nagged me into it. The problem is that I don’t really want to vote for anyone (but more on that later). To me, Election Day feels a little bit like the family reunion you don’t want to go to, but your parents guilt you into it anyway. The one where there isn’t anyone your age and a bunch of obscure relatives who pretend to be interested in your life, but will forget about you the next day.
So, even though I will be attending the vote mobs and voting on Election Day, I confess I will still be apathetic about it. But at least I am voting, and this way, maybe I’ll actually care about the next election.
~Nice Girl
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2 comments:
Thank you for voting. I don't know if it will help but a good find to fight apathy is to get informed, start to look for reasons to care and there are a LOT of those reasons in thsi election.
I'm a 6th time voter, and struggling to understand where the apathy comes from in your generation.
I feel like nothing is more important then making sure my country (and province, and city) are being well-run and well managed, by people who have our best interests at heart. Although none of the options are perfect (far from it) some are certainly better then others when it comes to their ability to run things, and anytime I have the opportunity to choose between them, although it may not be an easy choice, its a critical one.
You only need to look to countries where democracy is falling apart to know how lucky we are here, but as voter turnout continues to fall, it will be easier and easier for those with a specific or self-interested agenda to seize power, simply by manipulating a smaller and smaller number of people.
I feel like maybe Canadians (and Americans) who grew up in the 1990s knew only reasonably good government under Chretien and Clinton, so maybe that gets taken for granted now?
Do you have a sense of where your apathy comes from? Why you didn't want to vote? If we could better understand this phenomenon, maybe it would be possible to reverse the trend?
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