Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Disappointment

Well, here we are with another Conservative minority government in Canada. As disappointed as I am by this, I can't say I'm very surprised. I suppose many people bought into the very negative portrait the barrage of Conservative attack ads painted of Mr. Dion, and while he faired better in the debate than many expected, his lack of charisma and his poor English didn't help him out.

I'm disappointed that Elizabeth May did not win the seat she was competing for. I think she demonstrated in the debate that her presence in parliament would have been healthy for the country.

Voter turnout was only 59%. I wonder if that is the lowest ever? Are you surprised at the low turnout? I welcome comments from anyone out there who didn't vote. Why didn't you bother? Did you feel that your opinion didn't matter? Do you think the politicians are all the same? Quite a number of years ago, I foolishly decided not to bother to vote in a provincial election. A good friend of mine took me to task on this, and our conversation (translate: slightly drunken arguement) still resonates with me. I've voted in every election since.

10 comments:

zydeco fish said...

I think it's appalling that people choose not to vote. I guess they take it for granted that the rest of us will make the right choice, which is dumb. All-in-all, it was a waste of $300 million.

sp said...

I'm disappointed that May didn't win a seat as well. I'm also disappointed that there are no green seats at all in Parliament. It's a shame.

I'm not surprised at the low turnout. We're an over-privileged country where people can take the right to vote so lightly. It's appalling.

vox said...

i am not quite certain that i qualify to comment here in that i did go out to vote. However, being utterly disgusted with the choices presented me with regard what i think is the biggest issue facing the nation at this time, i chose to rip my ballot in half. That issue is the economy and i believe that if we understood what is coming down the pipes, we would be investing in a company that makes guilotines, not voting for any of these donkeys who seem to be clueless when it comes to sound fiscal policy. (My apologies to any donkey i may have offended by likening dim-witted politicos to your noble species.)

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
* (asterisk) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
* (asterisk) said...

When I was a kid, about 15, around election time a few of us in class were bitching about how we'd never vote cos it was all pointless. Our Polish maths teacher overheard us and blew a fuse, saying that we should absolutely exercise our right to vote, some people don't have the privilege etc etc. He was so incredibly riled and passionate that I never forgot and have always voted.
[/dull election anecdote]

Sorry you got the Conservatives.

Wandering Coyote said...

Don't get me started on the low voter turn-out!

May did run against Peter McKay, which I don't think was terribly savvy. He's a star Con and I'm not surprised she didn't win her seat when I found out where it was located and who else was running there.

Wandering Coyote said...

PS: I do think that this is a historically low voter turn-out, according to various sources I've read.

mister anchovy said...

VOX, I think destroying your ballot is a time-honoured protest.

Barbara Bruederlin said...

The greens actually finished second in my riding, which was a pleasant surprise. However, the neocon incumbent beat the green candidate by almost 34,000 votes. It's almost enough to make me understand why people don't bother to vote.