Well
another election has gone by in Ontario and we no longer live with the threat
of an impending election hanging over our heads.
And
we messed up the pollsters again too.
Frankly,
I’m a bit surprised, I really didn’t think that anyone would be able to pull
off a majority in Ontario at this time.
It’s nice when the voters surprise you, unless of course your one of
those pollsters who are now scrambling to explain why their numbers were in
fact, more or less, pretty accurate. (sort of)
My
first thoughts are about Kathleen Wynne.
Walk
softly Kathleen, you have a majority, but it is not a traditional
majority. You were granted a licence by the
people of Ontario to steer the ship, you were not handed a mandate. Rather, you were granted an opportunity to
steer Ontario through the next four years by a grassroots coalition made up of all
parties including unhappy NDP and PC supporters.
This
election was marked by a concerted effort to prevent Tim Hudak from gaining the
Premiership rather than an effort to return Kathleen Wynne to that
position. Voters reached across party
lines to support the candidates best able to stop Tim Hudak, not necessarily to
support you.
That
said, I believe that you are probably the best choice to show a willingness to
listen to what the opposition has to offer and to engage in conversation with
the Members across the aisle. Let’s hope
that all parties are willing to speak out in the best interests of Ontario and
willing to work together and not like what we see up Ottawa way where
partisanship rules the day.
My
second thoughts are for those who decided to protest the election by declining
their votes.
While
I’ll applaud your willingness to at least show up, which puts you head and
shoulders above those who can’t be bothered to go to the polls, I still think
many of you missed the boat.
If
none
of the candidates in your riding represent you, I can agree with declining your
vote. That said, the offerings of the
parties is generally pretty wide ranging and unless you are a diehard Libertarian
or Communist, there should be a party or at least a candidate that meets the
majority of your needs or wishes.
Maybe
I should be thanking you instead. The people
who didn’t bother to vote and those who declined their ballot amplified my vote
and those of every other voter who actually cast a ballot in the election. Only about 50% of the voters in Chatham Kent
bothered to vote, that’s up from the last election, and the incumbent won with
only 38% of the votes that were cast.
Don’t
like the PCs? Well by staying home or
declining your vote you let someone like Rick Nicholls win with just over 19%
of the support of eligible voters in Chatham Kent. Think about it, less than 1 in 5 people in my
community have decided that Rick will represent us in Toronto. Your community is likely similar.
And
finally…
In
the run up to Election Day, I heard that nasty old canard “If voting could
change anything, they’d make it illegal.”
In
case you haven’t noticed, that’s what they’ve been working on. The party structure has warped the
Legislatures to the point where unless you are a member of a major party, you don’t
get to do much more than vote. Since
then, they’ve aimed their guns at the voters…
The
Election Laws that the Harper people brought in were based (in part) on the
laws in use in Ontario, requiring you to provide ID to be able to vote. We never had this before, we never had
complaints of voter fraud then either.
Since
then we have seen (at the federal level) a move to make it more and more difficult
to vote. For people in the mainstream,
with Drivers Licences and other pieces of “good” ID, these changes aren’t too
horrid, but for those outside of the mainstream, those on the fringes, they’re
making it harder for them to be able to vote.
Voting
is a right, and it is a right we need to defend.
When
you look back at the bad places in history, where rights were denied, where
evil took over the governments, they didn’t make a huge change all at
once. They just make little snips, here and
there in places that people really don’t seem to care about.
The
homeless, the impoverished, we don’t really care about them so it’s OK that
they don’t get to vote. The young? They never voted anyways.
I
mentioned that we elected a man with less than 20% of the eligible vote. If that plays out across the board, then it
is entirely possible that only 20% across the province selected the crew that
will sit in Toronto, and if we keep going the way we are going, Ottawa will be the
same.
Do
you really expect that people who get in on 1/5th of the available vote
actually care what you think? Our
wonderful rep blames the unions for stopping Hudak from imposing his will on
Ontario. I’m sure he’ll be very happy to
help me, a trade unionist with any issues I might have.
If
we really want them to pay attention, we have to make the first move. We need to take the reins and show up and
vote. It only takes a few minutes to
read a couple of newspapers in the real world or the Internet to see what the
parties are standing for, enough that you can make a half way informed decision
on who to vote for. If we start to show
up on Election Day, maybe they’ll show up the rest of the time?
I
don’t know how true it is, but I have been told more than once that if you go
to your elected member’s office for help, they check the list to see if you
voted. Keeping a voter happy may gain
them a vote, a non-voter gets shuffled down the pile. Why should they care about a non-voter? If they didn’t vote last time, they probably
won’t vote next time…
If
there are a lot of dancers on the floor, the band plays what the people
want. If no one dances, the band plays
what they want instead. Politics is like
that too.
That’s
about it, for now…
BC
I'd like to borrow a piece of that ...
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