Dear Editor:
I understand that 52 per cent of eligible voters actually managed to vote in the recent provincial election.
Fifty-two per cent. How low can we get?
No party can be happy with this figure as it indicates an abandonment of the basic responsibility of everyone in a democracy country, i.e., the necessity of voting in every election.
Democracy didn’t just happen. It was arrived at over long years of bitter struggle, of finally proclaiming that every citizen has an equal voice with every other person, i.e. one vote each.
The tired old excuses: “no time,” “don’t know the issues,” “they’re all the same,” “my vote doesn’t matter” are, each and every one, a cop out.
So it’s past time to adopt the Australian system of compulsory vote by a fine for all qualified voters who did not bother to vote. Perhaps that would awaken people.
One thing is certain. Canada cannot be allowed to backslide into a pseudo-democracy, also known as a dictatorship.
But that is happening now.
Please be ready to explain to veterans and others why you could not, would not or did not vote.
Sheila White
Summerland
