On Oct. 5, I became a Canadian citizen.
The rote details of Canadian history, its political systems, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens are fresh in my mind.
With that, we have all heard a lot from people banging on about their rights as Canadians recently, but citizenship comes with more than just rights—it comes with a list of responsibilities, too, among them, voting.
With the level of engagement online and surrounding political discourse, I’d expect the average Canadian to be champing at the bit to vote at every opportunity, but the situation on the ground is anything but.
The numbers say it all—voter turnout in the 2021 federal election was 62.6%. Only 17.2 million of 27.5 million voters bothered to turn up, leaving 10.2 million votes on the table.
Provincially, despite all his popularity in 2020, John Horgan’s NDP came second to the number of voters who didn’t bother by a country mile, while in 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 (despite the noise before the election), only 6,664 voters out of a possible 16,946 bothered to have a say for who would be mayor in 2022.
We don’t have an election coming up soon, but looking at those numbers and cross-referencing them with the quality of engagement and anger about political issues, it’s a confusing read on “the room” that is Canada right now.
It’s hard to even find an issue to blame or a politician to wear some community frustration—but I propose a pretty obvious solution to feelings of disenfranchisement and anger about Canada’s direction and standing in the world: Look inwards and think about how comfortable you are with letting politics be dominated by the unrepresentative few who vote.
But who is voting? Well, your landlord is. So are the folks who try to kill all developments because they’ll affect neighbourhood character. So are people who own multiple short-term rental listings when Canada’s economy is being poisoned by a housing crisis brought about by a fundamental lack of affordable housing.
It also goes by age group: according to Elections Canada’s data from the last few years, younger Canadians are the least likely to vote. Hence, the folks who are the least engaged are also the most vulnerable to a lack of affordable housing.
Their absence from the discourse is part of the problem we face today, because the voices are just not there to be heard.
With so few engaging with mayors, councillors, MLAs and MPs for so long, is it any wonder things have gone wonky?
The problems facing Canada today will not be solved in a hurry, but maybe, just maybe, turning up to vote when you’re asked to will make a difference over time. As a new Canadian, I know I plan to.
Scott Tibballs is a Sea to Sky Corridor reporter.
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