Incumbent MP Colin Mayes had a bit of an insight during this election campaign, he told me as we sat in his Salmon Arm campaign office election night for an interview before he left to meet media and supporters in Vernon.
Asked what he had learned or insights he may have had during this, his third federal election campaign, he said although he had attended every meeting he’d been invited to during the campaign, “I feel maybe I need to initiate meetings with those people who don’t necessarily hold to my ideologies.”
Excellent idea.
Unofficial results show Mayes garnering 55.4 per cent of votes cast in the riding, which means a little less than half of eligible voters in the riding did not support him. Add in the fact that only 62.5 per cent of voters in the riding voted, and that leaves a lot of people who may ‘hold to ideologies’ different than their elected representative.
Similarly, the Conservative majority of 167 seats amounts to 39 per cent of the popular vote. With unofficial estimates of Canada-wide voter turnout low at less than 62 per cent, it’s safe to say there are many Canadians who hold different ideologies than Stephen Harper.
Voting is ultimately the focal point of the democratic process, yet voting numbers show there’s a distinct absence of pride in being able to walk up to that ballot box without armed guards loitering ominously, without riots outside the Sunwave Centre, and choose who we want to represent us when deciding matters of national import. No wonder.
This is Canada’s third federal election since 2006, each at an estimated cost of $300 million. Think of all the other things that could be done with those millions. And so the cynicism begins. But more than that, it’s been an ugly process. Right from the start, the lies began. Two diametrically opposed reasons for an election can’t both be true.
Then the unprecedented proliferation of attack ads – a new low for Canada. Why is it that we allow those politicians we call our leaders to behave so badly? Attack ads go against everything we teach our children, everything we know to be essential in furthering human relations and development.
I recently re-watched on YouTube 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s speech to the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where she spoke for the Environmental Children’s Organization. It can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0&feature=fvwrel. I think it’s worth watching more than once. She speaks in non-partisan terms about what’s ultimately crucial for all of us, no matter the political stripe.
Citizens, if they have the will, have the power to hold politicians to a higher standard. And a higher standard is imperative if the level of voter cynicism is to drop and, with it, the threat of apathy to our democratic system.
I’m glad Colin Mayes has had this insight. I hope people will take him up on it.
Martha Wickett is a reporter for the Salmon Arm Observer.
