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LAST FIVE ENTRIES
The Sunday Suicide Ritual - 03.19.06
somnambulism: n, Jeremy on a Sunday night - 03.13.06
careful what you wish, you may regret it... - 03.05.06
somebody gona geta hurt real bad - 02.20.06
=NOT(rain V sleet V dark of night) - 01.31.06

I hate politics. - (01.23.06)

It's true! I hate politics. Off the top of my head, I can't really think of anything good about it, aside from the fact that, living in a "free" country, I am entitled to engage in politicking...or whatever.

Today's federal election is the first election I am taking part in. I am 24 years old, and have therefore been eligible for a handful of provincial and federal elections, yet have not voted until today. Why? Because I hate politics.

A number of people have told me that if I don't want to vote, to go and spoil my ballot, because somehow that's different than not voting at all. How do you figure spoiling the ballot is better than not voting at all? I am registered to vote, and therefore they are aware that I exist. Is it not enough to be part of the 30+% of people who decline to vote, or is it somehow more noble to be part of the unknown numbers of people who spoil their ballots. One might argue that you're more likely to make yourself known if you don't vote, since when was the last time you heard radio talk show hosts complaining about the high number of spoiled ballots?

I'm still not totally sure what drove me, or rather walked me, to the polling station this evening. All polls up until this point have pointed to a Conservative minority government, with the Liberals and NDP forming the bulk of the opposition. Since I certainly won't be backing ~~the beady-eyed right-wing homophobe~~ Stephen Harper, my vote for either the Liberals or the NDP will essentially be swallowed. I could vote for one of the lesser-known candidates -- my riding has eight running -- but that'd seem like even more of a waste than voting Liberal or NDP. I agree with a number of the Green Party's platforms, but unfortunately I live in a predominantly Liberal riding, and therefore voting Green would be essentially spoiling my ballot. If I still lived on the island I would seriously consider voting Green, as I would really like to see them get a seat in Parliament. I feel as though it's only a matter of time; they have been slowly climbing the ranks and get closer and closer each time.

I don't consider myself to be an expert; I'd be hard pressed to even argue that I'm well-informed. Hating politics means that I can't be arsed to put the time and effort into learning about each candidate, especially since they don't make it that easy. To help the lazy sods like me out, The Globe and Mail had a pretty interesting feature on their website that gave you the larger platforms of each major party, but didn't tell you which platform came from which party. A series of seven areas (Family, Defence, Health, Education, etc) listed each party's ideas, and you selected which best fit you. I went into today feeling undecided, and this questionnaire pretty much confirmed that: 2 Liberal, 2 NDP, 2 Green, 1 Bloc (uh...wha??), 0 Conservative. I knew I wasn't going to vote Tory, and finding a Bloc candidate in BC is like finding a polar bear on a tropical island: rare, but if you see it, you're more likely to shoot first and ask questions later. That left me with the three I was waffling over to begin with. Great tool, just not so helpful.

Looking at the individual candidates in my riding is a bit like watching a three-ring circus, with a few other rings out back that you don't really know about until you're leaving and you see them being dismantled. The NDP candidate was busted a couple of years back for stealing a diamond ring for his partner, despite being pretty well off. He apologised and all that, but come on. Just buy the fucking thing. The incumbent Liberal candidate is a bit of a psycho, despite holding office for over a decade now. Years ago she was quoted as saying that racists up in Prince George were burning crosses [KKK style, I'm assuming, since there aren't that many ways to burn a cross]. Yeah, that wasn't true. The Conservative candidate is running on a similar ticket as John Kerry did in the recent US Presidential election: "vote for me, because the other guy[s] are fucking nuts." There's a Christian group, the Green party, the Marijuana party, Libertarians (!?), and apparently the eighth just dropped out, but does it really matter what your candidate has done? Unfortunately, in the grander scheme of things, it does not.

See, here in the Great White North (eh?), we essentially vote for the party we want to run the government. Individual MPs don't generally make a difference (Chuck Cadman being the most recent and famous exception). So if I vote for Hedy Fry, I'm voting for Paul Martin. If I vote for Svend Robinson, I'm voting for Jack Layton. I hate to say it, but we could actually take a page out of the Americans' book and have separate voting for Prime Minister and Members of Parliament. The problem with that lies in the differences between the way our two countries work, so having separate voting probably wouldn't work. Nonetheless, it seems silly to vote in an MP that you don't like, just because you think his/her party's PM choice isn't quite as bad as the rest of them.

So despite this long and somewhat rambling entry, I really do hate politics. I hate being told what I think. "Canadians are looking for a change." Well, yes, but that's only because I rode home from work and need to put on clean clothes. "British Columbians have been abused by Ottawa for too long." I don't recall Paul Martin giving me the Bad Touch, but it could be that I've blocked it from my memory. I hate the attack ads. Showing unflattering pictures of the opponent(s), while playing morose music and speaking in a sombre voice isn't going to make me hate them any more. It makes me hate you more.

What I would love to see from politics and politicians is what Progressive car insurance offers: their price, and the price of their competitors. But I want honestly above all else. I understand the need to denigrate your opponent to paint yourself in a colourful and happy-happy-fun- can't-say-gay-anymore- because-it-might-be-taken- the-wrong-way-unless-you're- Svend-Robinson light. But what I would much prefer is a civil and open discussion amongst what are essentially peers, like you see with the debates, but without all of the bullshit pretence of trying to make your opponent look bad in a television friendly way. It saddens me that we live in such a great country, and yet so many people are either alienated by the process or just can't work up enough energy to give a shit.

The last government lasted 19 months, and I'm afraid this new one won't even do that well. A Conservative minority isn't going to get jack shit done. They're going to introduce a bunch of things, and the Liberals and NDP are going to gang up on them and shut it down. At least, I hope that's how it's going to work. There are a lot of things I don't agree with the Tories on, but the one that always comes to the forefront of my mind is gay marriage. My aunt got married a year and a half ago to a woman she'd been living with for years. The day of their marriage was the happiest I have ever seen her. I see absolute no reason whatsoever why she would not be allowed to remain happy. Some might say that children need both a male and a female figure in their lives. While I agree to a certain extent, it is impossible to deny how many children borne of "traditional" marriages still do not have that father figure. My cousin, whose mother is now happily married, grew up in such a house, and there are thousands more like her. Unfortunately, it's difficult to really compare growing up in the two different households, as gay parents simply have not been around long enough, or in large enough numbers, to have a great effect. I am interested to see the end result in 20-30 years, but, here in the present day, to deny legal recognition of a relationship between two people of the same sex seems beyond asinine to me.

In the end, I ended up voting for the NDP. The Liberals kinda pooched it with the Sponsorship Thingy (and the fact that the Finance Minister at the time, Paul Martin, didn't know what was going on kind of speaks to what happens behind closed doors) and I want the Conservatives to have the least amount of power possible. I agree with some of the NDP's ideas, so why not, right? It's not like my vote matters anyway.

***Jeremy sets mode to -soapbox

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