Canada Votes 2015 -- Democracy Rules

It was a busy weekend with all the turkeys and all the canucks heading to advance polls for the 2015 federal election — not together for the most part.

We heard tales of long line-ups and it wasn’t just a line-up — Voter turn-out was indeed higher than the last election in our advance polls. Not sure about your Facebook feed, but I had a number of friends proclaim on their wall that they had voted! After the first two days of advance polls being open, Elections Canada reported a 38% voter increase! After the three days, that flattened out to an increase of 16% more Canadians exercising their right to democracy in the advance polls. And the final numbers from Elections Canada on their Facebook page says after 4 days, “We estimate 3.6M electors voted during advance polls, up 71% from advance polls in 2011.” That’s with one more day of the polls being open.

Seems we were chomping at the bit. Nice job. This is the Canada we were intended to be — a democracy. For a powerful illustration of why it’s important to go to the polls October 19th, here it is:

Those who cite the whole “I don’t like any of them, so I’m not voting” thing are not making a statement. That changes NOTHING. You can be part of the majority, part of the minority — but at least you’re part of the democracy that makes up your country. You can’t be an activist and not be active. It’s an oxymoron.

Research, read, talk to people. Walk into your local candidates office. Be brave and get involved and make change if you think change is needed. There are countries where people are threatened by walking into their polling office, that’s unequivocally worse.

I Will Vote October 19th. See you there.

Mel Z – Middays on Ocean 98.5