Every time election time comes around, whatever it may be for (municipal, federal, school student society, etc.), people always ask me if I’m going to vote, and subsequently, who I plan to vote for.  These people obviously feel passionately for politics, and probably have a strong bias for one particular party/candidate.  I mean, they’re asking, after all, so they must have at least a minimal interest in it.  So then, when I tell them I don’t plan on voting, it typically casts an empty glance across their face, as they stare at me in disbelief.  Yes, that’s right, I said it.  I don’t vote, and don’t ever plan to.

My decision to not vote, and my stance on why other people shouldn’t vote, seems to go against everything that stands for goodness and order in this society.  Hell, MuchMusic even runs ads around federal elections telling young adults to get out and vote if they have the chance.  So with all of this media and personal hype around casting my life-changing vote, why do I still choose not to?

First let me get one thing straight.  My choice of not voting does not equate to the fact that I don’t care.  Now, to be completely frank, yes, that’s part of it, but not all of it.  Of course I care about my own well-being and all of that shit, but there’s a lot more to it.  The main reason I don’t vote is because I don’t know enough about politics.  I don’t research enough into the campaigns, or what so-and-so’s stance on immigration is, or whatnot, because I have little to no interest in it.  It doesn’t mean I don’t care about the outcome, but I feel I don’t have enough information (or rather, I don’t care enough to go out and gather enough information) to sway myself in a particular direction. 

As a result, all I ever see are campaign ads on TV telling me this guy will do this for me, and a few seconds later, the next opposing dude telling me that first dude is a douchebag.  And of course, whatever I hear from the news.  Is this enough for me to make a firm decision as to who should run this wonderful nation of ours?  I certainly don’t think so.  Why?  Because campaign ads are full of propaganda and partiality (what you’d expect from people who will tell you anything to get your vote), and news will always have some sort of political bias underpinning what gets reported.  So with this enormous heap of bullshit, we’re all supposed to just pick our favorite flavour, and go on with our lives.

Sure, my vote “counts” in terms of it being…well…counted in the number of votes for somebody, but did I make my decision based on everything that needs to be known, or did I just pick the guy whose commercials I saw the most frequently.  And this doesn’t just stop at me.  I’m sure hundreds of thousands of people in Canada vote based just on this.  They’ll hear one guy say he’ll lower taxes and create more jobs.  “Well, that sounds amazing!  He’s got my vote!”  And it ends at that.  Personally, I don’t think even 50% of the people in Canada should be voting, based on the premise that they know fuck-all about politics and are just won over with glossed-over statements about how ideal things will be if so-and-so is elected.

Politics is definitely not rocket science, but it’s quite convoluted in many ways.  And just in the same way I don’t want to put my life in the hands of some idiot to give me brain surgery, I don’t want a bunch of morons deciding who should be running the country based on nothing but misleading news sources and gut instinct.  So please, when election time comes around again and again, I urge my fellow Canadians to think about whether they know all the facts before stepping into that voting booth.  I urge you all to stop voting.  Besides, in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter anyway?