I don't often write about politics, mainly because I don't know a lot about politics. But this post is more about politics on Facebook and why I am angered by my newsfeed lately.
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| I eat my laptop in protest. |
1- Harper Hate on Facebook
Listen. I don't like Harper either. I'm pretty sure he's a wax robot which is why, during the Federal Leader's Debate he was always looking in the wrong direction. His robot eye sockets were clearly programming incorrectly and by the time his creators realized, it was just too late.
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| Aaaaaaahh!! Move his eyes to the left! He doesn't see the impending collision! Here's the problem though. From what I understand of Canadian politics, we don't vote for a prime minister. We vote for a local MP (member of parliament). This is actually really cool and has always made me proud to be a Canadian. I don't have to vote for the guy who has never lived in my city, let alone my neighbourhood. I vote for the individual who speaks to the issues happening literally down the street from me. The would-be prime minister who, let's say, has lived his whole life in Ottawa doesn't know whether or not my commute on public transportation every day is longer and more expensive than I want it to be, and wasn't shopping during the G20 summit, suddenly finding the store on lock-down as police cars went up in flames. But my MP rides the same bus as me (maybe, kind of, in theory) and saw G20 protestors and police officers in complete chaos on the same streets that I did. It has become very en vogue to hate Harper. As I said, I don't know all that much about politics, so this is hardly going to be a list of everything Harper has done or hasn't done that has been terrible for our country. The problem though, with hating Harper, and focusing all your hate on Harper is taking the heat off the real issues. And now YOU are becoming part of the problem. The candidates now know that they don't have to be GOOD, they just have to be BETTER than Harper. Hell, not even better. They just have to say the OPPOSITE of what he says. How this relates to you on Facebook- Someone on my newsfeed posted a link to www.shitharperdid.ca with the caption "uuuugh, as if we needed more reasons to vote against this fool." I don't really think this person understands how Canadian politics work, so here's a handy explanation: |
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| What you think your ballot will look like. |
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| What your ballot will actually look like. |
You're not voting against anyone, or trying to defeat anyone. You are voting for someone, and trying to help someone you agree with gain a voice within the Canadian political system. Think of it like American Idol, but way sexier.
One of the most amazing elections to watch, in my opinion, was the 2008 US election. After 8 years of Bush being AWESOME Obama came along and said "awww, hellz no Dubble-ya!" He inspired hope. He inspired change. He didn't look like your typical candidate, he didn't speak like your typical candidate. He was charismatic, he didn't dumb himself down for his audience or speak in a patronizing manner to the typical voter. This is what we lack in Canada. We lack someone who doesn't look like the middle aged suburban white guy who could never understand why we follow Justin Bieber on twitter, or how to download Facebook for iPhone. I know that these aren't the real issues, but in order to pay attention the the real issues, we want someone we feel we can relate to on a personal level.
If you read articles from just before that election, the question asked is, will young people who support Obama actually vote for Obama? While the younger voters (typically categorized as 18-29) are generally more left-leaning, they don't often vote. So why did they come out for Obama? Because Obama ran a positive campaign, stating what he intended to do, why he intended to do so, and how it would help the country. He spoke of positive change, and did not dwell on a negative past.
I've been trying to find a positive ad for one of the Canadian political parties. One that doesn't attack an opponent, but tells me what the party in question wants to do to make my life as a canadian better. I haven't found one. All I know is that everyone hates everyone else. Because all that WE have asked of our leaders is that they are marginally better than someone else. We're making it easy on them. Here's what the Federal Leader's Debate sounded like to me. "My opponent did X and that was bad. I am going to do Y." This is what the conversation would sound like if it was not politically motivated "I hate Jimmy because he insists we take the bus every day. I'm better because I'm going to use a hovercraft to get places." That all sounds great, but how are you going to get the hovercraft? Do you have money for it? Do you hover over sidewalks or roads? Does this interfere with pedestrian or vehicular traffic? It's because of us that the leaders can get away with just giving a better option than what we've had, because we don't ask to hear how they're going to do it, or why it's actually going to be better for us, as Canadians. So stop wasting your energy hating a candidate. Does anyone have anything to say about some of their local MPs and why they will/won't vote for them?
Probably not. You just want to make statements so that it sounds like you are informed, but really you're just the same sheeple that you accuse Harper supporters of being.
So what should you do?-
Form a goddamn opinion of your own, focus on the positive, meet with your local MPs, watch the televised debates, decide what is important to you in your ward, and find the candidate that will help improve your life in Canada.
2- Non-voter hate on Facebook
Not that you need to know, but in the interest of full disclosure, I will let you know that I ALWAYS vote. I really love it. I love living in a country that wants to hear my opinion. Some people, however, don't vote. There's probably a lot of reasons that someone would choose not to vote. What I don't understand is why someone would choose to criticize that.
How this relates to you on Facebook-
Here was a Facebook friend's recent status: "Do I really live in such a unique community that I can't remotely relate to all these claims of voter apathy? It seems clear to me that people wants change and they're willing to get out and vote for it."
Here was their friend's response, which I am excited to tear to shreds momentarily: "Younger people in suburbs and smaller centres, and I hate to say it but with less education, are not going to be fired up about voting. Those probably mostly aren't your friends. They certainly aren't mine. I have been wracking my brains and the internets to try and find stories for ShitHarperDid.com to use that those groups might glom onto so their points are a little wider-ranging...highway infrastructure cuts and higher taxes and such...but it's really hard to even think that way. I was working on something about a 2007 application by Energy Alberta Corp to build nuke plants in the Peace River area to fuel oil sands extraction and it took me a while to realize that demographic would probably be totally for it.
I worked the last election, in large part to see who is in my community...and it seemed I had extremely little in common with any of them. It's really easy, and increasingly so I think, to surround yourself almost completely with people just like you. Hell, I work at home for myself, I barely ever have to see anyone I don't like and 99% agree with about most things.
In fourth year university, I took a health psychology course. There was this one girl in my class; bleached-blonde hair, wore uggs every day, always carried a different designer purse to class, and had one of those shrill, ditzy voices like the girls from The Hills. My favourite thing about this girl though was that, every now and then, the prof would ask us for our opinions on the issues we were discussing. Things like "why are certain races more prone to obesity?" or "why is HIV/AIDS on the rise in certain communities?" and this girl, every time without fail would raise her hand and answer with "um, like, probably socio-economic status?" and her voice would go up on the last word. Y'know how that sounds. She always cared SO much about the plight of the little guy, which is easy to do from high atop your pedestal. Sounds like this dude above. "I hate to say it but with less education..." Really dude? First off, clearly you don't hate to say it. It's in your first sentence. You can't wait to say it. It is the thesis of your comment. I would very much like this opinion explained to me. Because never in a Canadian school did I ever discuss politics. It's not a part of the curriculum, we don't learn about politics from a young age. So why would education have any bearing on whether or not I vote?
I lived in Israel as a teenager. I often tell people about how, in school in Israel, at the beginning of every day, you have 10-20 minutes where the class discusses current events and politics with their homeroom teacher. People usually respond with "do you watch propoganda videos about the triumphs of the Israeli army?" because y'know, it's easier to hate what we don't know than try to learn about it so that we can improve our lives, as we discussed in point 1. But no. That's not what we do. Israel, much like Canada, is a democratic country, and all opinions are heard and considered. Looking back on it, it's crazy to think about how much 12 year olds know about their political system. We all had fully formed opinions! And they all differed, and we all got an equal opportunity to discuss and debate them. In this case, yes, education plays a part in why or how you vote. But here in Canada, it is very simple to not have politics be a part of your life as you grow up. So all of a sudden, you're 18, you get your voter registration card in the mail, and you don't really know what it's all about. Because no one's taught you. Because we're ALL UNEDUCATED in this regard.
Anyway, buddy from up above has been wracking ALL OF HIS BRAINS (not just the one brain, but all of them) to try to find issues that will get the apathetic citizen to vote. He's not trying to find out WHY these people aren't voting, or why shitharperdid.ca- apparently the ONLY SITE ABOUT POLITICS IN CANADA ACCORDING TO YOU PEOPLE- does not affect said citizens. Once again, the hovercraft example. Let's try to nip the problem half way through, as opposed to in the bud.
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| As the media has recently taught us, this is how you create a problem in the bud. This woman turned her son gay. Please do not turn our voters gay. Wait. What are we talking about again? |
Back to the Obama 2008 campaign just for a second, the majority of his voters were either highly educated or severely under-educated. So, y'know. There's that.
People don't vote for a lot of reasons. Sometimes they don't vote because they think that whoever is elected will do a good job for them. Or because they think all candidates are the same and they don't trust any of them. Or they haven't had time to fully research the parties, their platforms and their local MPs, so they don't feel comfortable voting. Or because it's not part of their lives growing up, so they don't know a lot about the political system. Or they're so criticized by their peers for not being as involved in politics that they're scared to ask that someone explain the issues to them in layman's terms.
Let me get back to the fact that I've always voted. That's actually a bit of a lie. As I said, I grew up in Israel, and am therefore also an Israeli citizen. I was in Israel during an election a few years back and could have voted. But I didn't. Although I try to keep up with the politics in Israel, being away from the country means that, although I can read articles and discuss issues, I'm not there and don't really know what I feel I would need as a citizen of the country. Am I uneducated? Am I apathetic? No. I'm responsible. Voting without being informed, in my opinion, is more of a waste of a vote than not voting at all. So I did what I thought was best for a country I care about.
Another friend's status referenced something said by David Suzuki during a speech he gave in Toronto. "When almost half of us are not voting, you don't have a democracy. And when you have a minority government acting like a majority, all run by ONE MAN, I think you have a dictatorship"
Now, I am hardly one to tell David Suzuki he's wrong, but damn Suzuki, you're wrong! Here's an example of democracy, according to Merriam-Webster online "In a democracy, every citizen should have the right to vote." The RIGHT to vote. If you HAD to vote, if it was illegal not to vote, that's when we would no longer have a democracy. We are lucky enough to live in a country where we can say "hey candidates, you kind of suck. Want me to vote for you? Be better." Because if we HAD to vote, candidates could all just be not-incredibly-terrible and one of them would still have to win, because we would have to vote for one of them. And the dictatorship thing? Ugh. I don't even really want to say anything about how stupid that is. We are having an election right now because the government fell in a non-confidence vote. Y'know what doesn't exist in a dictatorship? A non-confidence vote. When you make a statement like this... well you're a liar, but also, you take away the severity of what a dictatorship ACTUALLY is. If you tell young, impressionable people that we live in a dictatorship, then when they hear about an ACTUAL dictatorship, they think "well, that's what we have, and it's not so bad." In much the same way that the soup nazi episode of Seinfeld made a lot of people think that nazis are people who are really mean about your soup purchase, making statements like Mr. Suzuki's de-value actual issues.
So what should you do?-
STOP JUDGING! Do you get to vote? Well then what are you complaining about? In the same way that you exercise your democratic freedom by voting, the non-voters are doing the exact same thing. By not voting, they're telling the candidates that they're not engaging enough, not in touch enough with the issues, don't reach out to their demographic. If the candidates want to get those non-voters to the polls, then they better step up their game and relate to them. And not by saying "Hashtag Fail" in debates *ahem, Jack Layton, ahem.*
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| This, on the other hand, gets the voters out in droves. |
So in conclusion. Vote. Or don't vote. Because it's totally up to you. Look into the issues that are really out there, in your ward, in your city. Make an informed decision that is 100% yours. You can only control how your voice is heard, so make the best of it. And if you have an opinion to share, please do so! I'm still undecided as to how I want to vote (I live in Toronto, Trinity-Spadina) and would love to talk about the issues we face!
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