So I’m talking to my friend Donald over drinks, mostly to do with the current state of affairs. A glum conversation to say the least. Many dark corners. Few bright spots.
“There are times,” Donald declares, “when I wonder if I might not be a whole lot happier if I was able to stop paying attention.”
“To what?” I inquire.
“All of it,” he says. “Politics mainly. But the whole warp and woof of history even.”
“And how would you go about that exactly?” I wonder.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it,” Donald acknowledges. “How to stop giving a fuck.”
Check out.
Gone fishin’.
Permanent vacation.
Sees yas in the funny papers.
It can be done, apparently, switching it off, if voter turnout numbers are any indication.
On this, election day here in Ontario, unnecessarily called by a cynical premier who knew his best before date’s careening fast and hard down at him, and is cowardly attempting to ensconce himself with a ‘strong mandate’ before it all goes sour, voter turnout will be the key. Coming off the lowest turnout in provincial election history last time out, back in 2022, where Doug Ford actually increased his party’s majority, he again seems to be counting on another Big Yawn from voters. Calling a snap election in the middle of winter, with a short timeline, fewer advance voting days, a sluggish mailout of registration cards (I received mine yesterday and I voted last Thursday) and other election materials, seemed designed to suppress the vote.
And if numbers from last week’s advance polls are anything of a bellwether, the strategy just might work. Reports have turnout down to just over 6% of voters casting an early ballot versus just under 10% in 2022. Although, there were 10 days of advance voting last time out versus 3 this year. So things might be closer to 2018 when 6.8% voters voted early with 5 days of advance voting available then.
(Leading to a question you might have: Why the fuck don’t we have the same numbers of days established for advance voting regardless of with it’s a snap election or a regularly scheduled one?!)
Look,
I’m not here to indiscriminately chastise anyone for not exercising their right to vote. I know there are many people who genuinely feel disenfranchised, genuinely are disenfranchised, and go unrepresented by whoever gets elected into office. Their votes never really seem to matter even when they do vote, their concerns and aspirations forever neglected. Nothing really does ever change for them.
This isn’t about any of those people.
This is about all those who have the means, the resources of time to actually be engaged enough to know at least the rough outlines. Who’s who amongst the political players. The broad strokes of policy. Cognizant, at least, of the issues at hand.
Those people.
Those people who are aware enough to know they have a stake in electoral outcomes and decide, with a shrug, Why bother? They’re all the same. There’s nobody out there to vote for, who represent all my values.
Etc. & Etc.
Ad nauseum.
Zzzzzzzzzz.
As someone who has drifted further left as the years and years have piled up, I too have felt the sting of disaffection with my ballot choices. Probably not since the Toronto municipal elections of 2003 and 2006 have I felt that my vote matched up as perfectly as it possibly could in the political realm. Since then it’s been pretty much, Oh well. That could’ve been worse. Or, Jesus fucking Christ, what just happened?!?! In the 2011 federal election, there was a strange mixture of, That’s exciting but, my god, what have we just done?!?!
Rarely perfect, I guess, is what I’m saying, and in my particular case, election results have been, by a solid majority, largely disheartening and inexplicable to me.
What exactly do they think is going to happen now? is a frequent post-election refrain of mine.
Still,
I vote.
It’s the least I can do. An argument could be made that it is the least I do.
I vote.
Hoping for the best, expecting the worst.
Still,
I vote.
And in these days of authoritarian ascendent, democratic backsliding, with more and more people purposefully being denied their right to vote, to cast a meaningful ballot, opting to take a pass on participating in what remains a free and fair election campaign is nothing short of civic abdication. Oh, I forgot. Or, I can’t be bothered. Or, The weather’s terrible. Or, I’m too busy. I have to pick up the kids from school, and then there’s ballet lessons. None of it cuts it these days, these bleak days of 2025.
Vote like it matters.
Because those who are trying to convince you that it doesn’t, those practicing the politics of disengagement, are the very same ones who are doing their level best to make it difficult to do so.
Don’t give into the apathy they are depending on.
Vote.