More People Shouldn't Vote

I don't think that I've ever equated low voter turnout, particularly among young people, with public cynicism. Public cynicism in politics is, more often than not, misplaced because voters aren't especially good at paying attention. You see, the real scandal isn't the promises that politicians break, it's the ones that they keep.

For example, if you thought that Stephen Harper was going to govern as a conservative, you just didn't pay attention to his campaign or thought that he was consciously lying. There's just no two ways about that.

Let's look the issues that got him the most attention five years ago. He promised that he was going to cut the national value added tax - the most ineffective tax cut imaginable if you plan on it accomplishing anything other than getting yourself elected - by two percent and giving money away for babysitters and sports equipment. Not only is that not conservative, it was Harper's way of telegraphing that he was going to put us back into deficit spending. It's important to remember that the Tories blew through the $13 billion surplus that he inherited from the Liberals by the time the financial meltdown hit us.

The only thing that he did lie about was his promise not to tax income trusts. That lie cost people a shitload of money, but the Conservatives paid no political price whatsoever for it. I guess his unconstitutional fixed elections date law could qualify as a lie, but I consider it more of a clever trick that fooled dumb people. Parliament, you see, cannot restrict the constitutional prerogative of the Governor General without amending the Constitution, and the Governor General is the person empowered to dissolve Parliament and call elections. But when Prime Minister Harper violated his own law, he won increased seats. That's not an indication of public cynicism as it is public stupidity.

That's what makes studies like this one a titanic waste of money that we really don't have.

Elections Canada is commissioning a major new national survey as it searches for new ways to encourage disengaged young Canadians to vote.

With an estimated cost between $100,000 and $250,000, the project will survey 2,500 people between the ages of 18 and 34 who are disabled, unemployed or aboriginal, live in rural areas, or speak neither English nor French as a first language.

It’s all part of a “youth research action plan” Elections Canada hopes will help it reach out to a segment of the population that’s increasingly tuning out electoral politics.

Only 37.4 per cent of voters ages 18 to 24 cast ballots in the 2008 federal election. Turnout by young voters has been dropping steadily since the 1960s, when about seven in 10 of those eligible to vote for the first time went to the polls.

The drop-off in youth participation is largely responsible for the overall decline in Canadian voter turnout over the past two decades. Just 58.8 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 — a record low.

I think I've said this before, but I don't think that not enough people voting is a problem as much as that too many people are. Let me rephrase that. Too many people that don't have any idea what they're voting for or against are lining up at the polls.

One of the most annoying platitudes that's never going to go away is that folks have a "responsibility" to vote, which isn't true. People have the right to vote, but the responsibility to know what they're actually doing. Too many people exercise the right but ignore the responsibility.

I've talked to a few people in my life who refused to vote because, as they put it, they weren't interested and knew absolutely nothing about the issues. I have endless respect for those people. They couldn't be more responsible than people who vote because they think that should or cast ballots for parties just because their families or ethnic communities always voted that way.

Another truism that drives me up a fucking wall is "the people are always right." No, the people are often selfish, stupid and bigoted assholes. The worst shit in human history - like slavery, the Nuremberg laws and supply-side economics - usually had broad popular support. Until they didn't. But voters never take responsibility for the ugly nonsense that they previously were for. No, they turn their backs on something, at which point it becomes the government's fault.

Elections Canada identified youth engagement as a key priority in its 2008-13 strategic plan. It commissioned other youth surveys after the 2008 election that are nearing completion and will be published in the next month or two.

“It’s an ongoing process to try to understand what is making that group tick and how we can reach them better with our communications,” Enright says.

Among other things, the new survey will try to identify barriers to participation and determine the values, attitudes and behavioural factors linked to voting or non-voting.

It also hopes to identify what Elections Canada calls “possible interveners” —musicians, activists, social media sites — that young Canadians are listening to, then use those channels to deliver its message.

“If they’re telling us that they’re not hearing us,” Enright says, “who are they hearing? Is it best to reach them through some sort of social media? Or is it best to continue to put our efforts and our moneys into traditional advertising campaigns?”

You've gotta be shitting me! If I've ever heard a clearly and cleverly articulated reason for getting the government out of politics, that's it. Elections Canada actually believes that if kids aren't listening to them, they might listen to Panic! At The Disco or fucking Twitter. The scary thing is that they probably aren't wrong.

Yeah, they might get some more no-nothing hipster jerk-offs to the polls, but what does that actually accomplish? You've created a new audience for twisted spin doctors to write sleazy political ads for. In the end, you create less accountability for a government by, for and of the fucking lobbyist swine, not more. It's famously difficult to hold government accountable if you weren't paying attention to it in the first place.

Look, I get that useless beauracrats like those at Elections Canada have an interest in justifying their existence. I just wish that they'd do so in less damaging ways. More importantly, they should stick with with they're good at. For example, they've had a few really hot girls at my polling place in the last few elections. They should get more of them instead of caring why, how or if they vote.

If they're determined to continue the destruction of our democracy with wildly unchecked ignorance, they at least owe me the courtesy of giving me some masturbation material while they do it. Few people need the distraction more than I do.


Link lovingly stolen from Gerry Nicholls.