Voters Poll-Axed

The provincial vote is next Monday. For as annoyed with, upset with, and sick of the reigning Conservative Party of 37 years it looks like we’ll return them to power.
Why?
Apathy mostly, coupled with mistrust of Liberals and New Democrats and, well, everybody else.

Today’s screaming headline in the Edmonton Journal feeds the apathy as well.
“Another Tory Majority In Sight” we read in big, bold black. Underneath we read in the sub-head “ ‘Enormous’ undecided bloc a wild card, poll finds.” A few sentences later it suggests these undecided voters could mean an unexpected result.

What’ll stick with readers is the screaming headline. We have lousy voter turnout here anyway and this tells us the result is a foregone conclusion. It suggests to the average person, “My vote won’t count anyway, so why bother?”

I’m all for these polls. I think they should be run and they should be publicized. I also think they poll-axe (Thank you Hunter S. Thompson. Please forgive the pun.) us into believing there’s nothing we can do. We’re stuck with the devils we know.

And that’s casting ballot should be mandatory. If every eligible voter voted, then the politicians would have to please us and woo us and actually do us some good rather than simply buying us with our own money. They’d have to prove themselves worthy rather than simply convince us they are the lesser of all the available evils.

Your vote counts.

My vote counts.

If everyone voted, then the party in power would know that they are there because we want them, not because they won by default.

Get out and vote on Monday if you wish to complain on Tuesday.