MacNews wrote:sj-roc wrote:That may just be it: voter fatigue. This was the third federal election in a span of barely four years; it seems people are growing weary of these frequent trips to the polls.
I don't think it's voter fatigue, but just Canadians are not used to having so much democracy at their feet. We're normally only treated to one vote every four years, so now that we have a federal vote every two years, people don't know what to do with themselves.
That only 60% of the voting population make the 15 minute effort to go vote shows you just how lazy, apathetic and useless our society is.
Very well said.
Do you think it's time to implement compulsory voting? Voting is compulsory in more than 30 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Turkey, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. The thought behind compulsory voting is that voting is not simply a civil right, but rather a responsibility. Low voter turnouts shake the most fundamental cornerstones of democratic politics. That's why even some advanced countries have instituted compulsory voting. In many countries where voting is mandatory, various regulations have been established to punish those who refuse to vote, but those regulations are rarely implemented. Meanwhile, in some nations in which voting is compulsory, the elderly are not obliged to go to the polls out of consideration of their difficulties in getting about. Brazil, for instance, stipulates that voters under 17 (the voting age in Brazil is 16) and over 70, as well as illiterate voters, should not be forced to cast their ballots. In other countries with compulsory voting, such as Australia, Belgium and Italy, the voter turnout is usually more than 85 percent.
MacNews has made a point of having so much democracy at their feet, and sj-roc mentioned the issue of turning away voters for sake of having to wait more than 15 minutes. I can sort of understand how much democracy in Canada since I don't think whichever party is chosen won't make
that much of a difference and there hasn't been a case where the incumbent party became so unpopular. The recent possible exception was in 1993 when the Progressive Conservatives became so unpopular after a nine year reign that their party was limited to two seats, but the Liberals made a huge campaign to abolish the GST but the promise was never kept. For better or worse, Canada was never extremely politically sensitive.
For comparison, consider another first world democratic country that does not have compulsory voting but is extremely politically sensitive - Taiwan. I know many, many Taiwanese-Canadians who made it a point of flying back to Taiwan to participate in their 2000, 2004, and recently 2008 Taiwan Presidential Elections. Unlike Canadians who are lazy for the sake of waiting in line for one hour to vote, overseas Taiwanese are willing to spend so much time, money, and energy for the sake of going back to Taiwan to vote.
祝加拿大加式足球聯賽不列颠哥伦比亚卑詩雄獅隊今年贏格雷杯冠軍。此外祝溫哥華加人隊贏總統獎座·卡雲斯·甘保杯·史丹利盃。還每年祝溫哥華白頭浪隊贏美國足球大联盟杯。不要忘記每年祝溫哥華巨人贏西部冰球聯盟冠軍。
改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
祝你龍年行大運。
恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。