Oh Canadians! What have you done? Again!

Yesterday I voted in the federal general election.

And it mattered.

My choice of candidate won in one of the closest races, by a mere 442 votes, or less than 1% of the popular vote.

Even if my chosen candidate had lost, it would have still mattered that I voted. What matters is that I take part in the process. That I am proactive.

I am so sick of hearing people, particularly in the 18-35 age group, say their views don't matter, they are only one person, no candidate represents their views, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Participation was tepid at best, dropping under 60% nationally, and averaging 52.9% in Alberta. I don't have the exact figures, but I suspect turn-out was lowest in the group between 18 and 35, the ones I hear complain the most about the political system.

Just the other day, in fact, my wife and I had a discussion with a good friend of ours who told us he was not going to vote because the whole system is corrupt.

I don't buy into this idea. Yes, the system is far from perfect, and yes there are corrupt politicians. But that does not absolve us from all responsibility to participate in the political process.

Don't like any candidate? Run yourself.

Don't like a party? Form one.

But do something. Anything.

As my wife and I watched the results trickle in on TV last night, I felt frustrated. There were many things to feel frustrated about, but I kept thinking that if this huge disenfranchized group of potential voters - people who I believe to generally have views left of centre - got out to the polls and supported an alternative party, the political landscape would look very different different this morning. In fact, it would be something akin to a political revolution. Non-participation is one of the biggest challenges to democracy in Canada today. And it's not the politicians fault. It's ours.

Another major problem with our political system is the lack of proportional representation (PR). If you compare the number of seats versus the percentage of popular vote, you begin to see how with the current system the balance of power rests with a party that has significantly less than the majority of the vote.

CON - 143 seats, 37.63% of popular vote and 46.4% of the seats
LIB - 76 seats, 26.24% of popular vote and 24.7% of the seats
BQ - 50 seats, 9.97% of the popular vote and 16.2% of the seats
NDP - 37 seats, 18.20% of the popular vote and 12.0% of the seats
IND - 2 seats, 0.65% of the popular vote and 0.06% of the seats
GRN - 0 seats, 6.80% of the polular vote and 0% of the seats
OTH - 0 seats, 0.51% of the popular vote and 0% of the seats

Astute readers may notice that the government, even though it's a minority one, had less than 38% of the vote. That's 38% of those who voted, mind you, which is less than 60% of the total population. If my math is correct, that is about 23% of Canadians.

As you can see, the NDP and Green party got screwed, while the Conservatives and the Bloq made off like bandits.

The Bloq captured 50 seats with less than 10% of the vote, while the NDP tool 37 with over 18% and the Greens have ZERO seats with almost 7% of the vote. The Greens were polling much higher before elction day, but the truth is that Canadian's know how things run around here and many voters who support the Greens voted strategically in their ridings, knowing the poor Greens didn't stand a chance.

The sick thing about this situation is that there is absolutely no impetus for the governing party to push for proportional representation, as clearly they (and the Bloq) benefit the most by it. And so it goes.

I think it's time Canadian's demand proportional representation. Write your MP about it. Blog about it. Send emails. Circulate petitions. Get the media involved. Demand it. Vote for parties that support it and hold them to their promise. Next to the environment and health care, it's the most important issues facing our country today. The truth is, all these issues are inexplorably linked. But that's a topic for another post.

PG