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- 2002-10-07
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It’s my turn. A high-pitched alarm was inexplicably beeping as I descended into the basement of Southminster United Church on Aylmer Avenue, where the deputy returning officer, no longer drinking from his mug that read “World’s Greatest Grandpa,” handed me a ballot. I took it behind a voting screen and, with my school board trustee already acclaimed, cast my votes for mayor and Ward 17 councillor.
Unlike in six other wards in the region where no incumbent councillor is running for reelection, or those few wherein a real horse race has emerged, I expect my votes will not sway the outcome of anything by a single iota, that at some coming Christmas craft fair, bake sale, sod-turning, ribbon-cutting, cornerstone-laying, senior’s 100th birthday or what-have-you, I will run into Jim Watson and still accurately greet him as “Your Worship,” and that David Chernushenko will likely be able to forestall his return to green consulting for another shop teacher’s handful of years or more.
So why bother?
Today I met 84-year-old George Sherman and 22-year-old Natasha Nault in Confederation Park. Sherman believes it’s everyone’s right AND obligation to vote. Nault didn’t know there was an election today. Sherman voted today because he supports Ottawa’s light rail plan, despite believing he won’t live long enough to see its completion. Nault only knows she doesn’t want Stephen Harper to be whatever it is that he is.
George Sherman, 84, voted to show his support for Ottawa’s light rail project.
Meanwhile, also in Confederation Park, a young Carleton University journalism student explained that she wasn’t voting because she didn’t know what the issues were.
Of course, numerous young people are politically engaged and vote at every opportunity. I just didn’t happen to approach any today, which is a little saddening. For while the apathy that ferments when things don’t change and no apparently inspiring leaders come forward is understandable, withholding one’s vote does not promote anything but more of the status quo.
And that makes the future look grim. Democracy doesn’t work by simply allowing us to vote. We actually have to exercise that right to make it work. Maybe that’s why Southminster’s alarm was sounding.
查看原文...
Unlike in six other wards in the region where no incumbent councillor is running for reelection, or those few wherein a real horse race has emerged, I expect my votes will not sway the outcome of anything by a single iota, that at some coming Christmas craft fair, bake sale, sod-turning, ribbon-cutting, cornerstone-laying, senior’s 100th birthday or what-have-you, I will run into Jim Watson and still accurately greet him as “Your Worship,” and that David Chernushenko will likely be able to forestall his return to green consulting for another shop teacher’s handful of years or more.
So why bother?
Today I met 84-year-old George Sherman and 22-year-old Natasha Nault in Confederation Park. Sherman believes it’s everyone’s right AND obligation to vote. Nault didn’t know there was an election today. Sherman voted today because he supports Ottawa’s light rail plan, despite believing he won’t live long enough to see its completion. Nault only knows she doesn’t want Stephen Harper to be whatever it is that he is.
George Sherman, 84, voted to show his support for Ottawa’s light rail project.
Meanwhile, also in Confederation Park, a young Carleton University journalism student explained that she wasn’t voting because she didn’t know what the issues were.
Of course, numerous young people are politically engaged and vote at every opportunity. I just didn’t happen to approach any today, which is a little saddening. For while the apathy that ferments when things don’t change and no apparently inspiring leaders come forward is understandable, withholding one’s vote does not promote anything but more of the status quo.
And that makes the future look grim. Democracy doesn’t work by simply allowing us to vote. We actually have to exercise that right to make it work. Maybe that’s why Southminster’s alarm was sounding.
查看原文...
