Tomorrow is election day!
I cant tell you how excited I am about the potential for a real change in canadian government and hopefully a turnaround of voters who have come to feel that their votes don't count. Voters who have learned that if they are going to vote they had better do it strategically or in effect vote against the leader they dislike most instead of voting for someone that they want representing their interests and their country on the national stage.
I love my country and I love voting, making my mark. The truth is that for all the democratic jostling of our political system, we are a GREAT country but I want to help us be better still. This is why i vote.
Canada is one of the heaviest polluters by population in the world, we have a deficit in our national retirement plan that threatens quality of life for our entire population, we have racism along the lines of language and reserve boundaries, classism between our urban and rural population, pressure cracks in our canadian healthcare system, and a history of miserly international aid.
All of these issues that float under the sightlines of our international reputation are not things to be ashamed or afraid of, they are opportunities to be resourceful, to lead by example, to really astound the world with our potential. I believe in canada and I think we should be champions in far more than international olympic hockey!
We constantly compare our country to the united states, but the comparison weakens us. Its not enough that we have healthcare, that doesn't equate to the superior attitude i sometimes witness by canadians towards our greatest trade partner to the south.
We also can't be fairly compared to other european nations that are so much smaller physically and larger by density than we are. They have developed systems of efficient transit, and resource management out of necessity.
Our diverse and sprawling nation, is its own challenge, an example of this is the fact that we have 2 official languages and 6 official federal parties. We need to balance our tradition of accommodating difference with the importance of working together, choosing a government and not leaving those elected to their own devices until the next election.
A good friend told me that he sends handwritten letters to his government because the weight of one such letter is so much greater than emails and signatures on petitions. I think as a nation we owe it to our country and to the success of our economy, to our families, to our future selves who will be the benefactors of the choices made in parliament today to be involved.
The federal government belongs to us as citizens, it is our responsibility and our legacy. We are the ones who give them the power. If we don't remind our politicians who we are as individuals how can we expect them to see us as anything more than a number.
Voting is just the beginning.
Voting is the LEAST we can do for the love of our country.
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