Speak for yourself and vote

You wouldn’t let your grandmother choose your next car and you wouldn’t let your grandfather choose your next apartment, so why are you about to let them choose your next prime minister? Over 60 per cent of the elderly will make it out to the polls this year while you’re playing Xbox and pre-drinking for another night out that you can’t afford.

It’s no wonder there’s no politician willing to step up and tackle student debt and youth unemployment when only a measly 38 per cent of Canadians who are affected by these issues are going to come out on election day. It’s far too easy to take a complex thing like politics and write it off as stupid just to save the time and effort it would take to make an informed decision on election day, and frankly, that’s what politicians are counting on.

It’s unusual for elections to be won by enormous margins, so politicians don’t waste their time appealing to demographics that don’t vote. If every eligible voter between 18 and 24 cast a ballot for the same party, that party would likely win the election. The margins are that small. Instead, well over half of that demographic will choose to remain voiceless and let someone else decide what their taxes pay for and what happens to the country they live in.

With the Canadian electoral system, there’s a sentiment that unless you’re voting for the winning party, your vote didn’t count. This isn’t necessarily the case. In a majority government like the one we have now, the opposition parties can’t prevent Prime Minister Stephen Harper from doing whatever he wants. If enough people had voted for any party other than the Conservative, there would be a large enough collective of non-conservative votes in the House of Commons to oppose the prime minister.

In many ways, a minority government is a far more democratic arrangement. The prime minister is forced to appeal to members of parliament outside of the party for support instead of having the ability to pass legislation without any consideration for opposing viewpoints.

The conclusion that should lead you to is that your vote can count. The fact that only about two out of three people bother to vote means that those people have a bigger say in the outcome of the election. The party you vote for may not win a majority or even a minority, but it’ll have a higher chance of being able to influence the government in power. You can’t increase your influence beyond the single ballot you have available to you, but that ballot becomes more valuable if less people choose to cast theirs.

The old birthday quip is “another year older, another year wiser.” It’s no surprise then that voter turnout steadily increases by age demographic. It should be noted that the saying doesn’t go “another year older, another year more concerned with the well-being of others.” No one is going to vote on your behalf, and statistically, you probably won’t either.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.