I have decided to vent/ramble/clarify my feelings about something that has recently happened in my life, since it has been on my mind a lot. Too much. I don’t think any of the people involved in this situation read my blog.
A few days ago, a facebook friend sent this e-mail to the group of her facebook friends from Toronto, which of course included me:
I knew when I sent the e-mail I should probably just deleted the message, but I am impulsive and emotional, and I also take elections and my right to vote very seriously. This e-mail has caused a rift between myself and my friend, and since she chose to complain about me on the original thread that all our mutual friends can read, has also caused a potential rift there.
Since then, both on the thread and elsewhere that I have discussed this occurance with neutral people (most of whom have agreed with me that the message was annoying, though they would not have responded to it at all), some have indicated it should not have bothered me since she did qualify her request with being conservative and in the district. I have thought a lot about how to respond to why the message still bothered me and this qualifier does not make it “better” to me, and here it is:
1) That qualification really makes no sense. If someone is conservative and in that riding, they will already be voting for this person, and therefore it should not matter whether or not she is my friend’s cousin, or my friend has said to vote for her.
3) This is the big one: I think the only reason someone should vote for a candidate is because they believe in who they are voting for. Not because of who they know or who they are related to. Potentially, there are people who will do this based on my friend’s message; People in the riding who are not political and were not even planning to vote, and got the e-mail and think “Eh, if she is +++++++’s cousin, I guess I can get out and vote for her” or people who plan to vote, but are still on the fence about how to vote. They too could easily get off the fence by discovering they “know” someone in their riding.
There are already too many people who choose how to vote for the wrong reasons:
1) Because they have always just assumed they were PC/liberal/NDP without ever really researching it or re-thinking it (usually based on one decision made at an election years ago, or how their family voted, etc). Even though I pretty much always know how I will vote and which party I am likely to support, I watch all the debates, read every platform and every local candidates page and re-evaluate every election.
2) People who vote for who they know, just because they know the candidate or the candidate has some personal relationship to them. Supporting friends and family is important in most circumstances…but supporting a friend or family member to win an election is not the same as supporting them to get a job. It potentially has far reaching impact on everyone in the country, and should not be taken lightly or a given.
3) I know of people who will not vote unless there is a Jewish candidate, and in that case will always vote for the Jewish candidate regardless of what their platform is because they want a Jewish person representing them. I assume that other cultural/religious groups also have similarar situations.
4) People who vote based on one issue, without looking at the bigger picture or even researching a parties platform regarding anything but their issue (for example, pro-lifers who will vote for a pro-life candidate without even thinking about that candidates policies regarding the economy or education. Silly..because in this day and age abortion is pretty unlikely to be made illegal anyways and the candidate’s platform regarding other issues is far more likely to actually change things.)
This kind of voting really bothers me. Who wins this election could affect my life (and more importantly, that of my children) in many ways, so it is important to me that people vote for who they truly believe is best for our country, based on the political issues…or not vote at all. Even if it is not who I believe in…at least I can feel like an informed decision was made and the government is truly representative of what the majority of people believe in and feel is best for the country. I know I cannot change the fact that many people choose how to vote for the “wrong” reasons…but seeing that kind of behaviour encouraged (of me) by my friend…well…it just really bothered me and was not something I could ignore. The thing with elections is, every vote has the potential to make a difference. One vote could make the difference in a riding, and that riding could be the difference between a majority or minority government, and that difference could make the difference in my taxes, or an important law, or whether or not we can find a family doctor, and a huge range of other issues that are important to the well-being of my family. For this reason, the only thing that should impact my vote, or anyone’s, is voting for who I feel best represents my interests (however I define that-best for my family, my community, my country, etc). So although how someone else votes may not be my “business”, I do not think it is unreasonable of me to be upset when I see someone encouraging people to vote a certain way just because they happen to have a personal relationship with to be a candidate.
It especially bothers me since my friend does not live in Canada, though I assume she is still a citizen. She is not bringing up her kids in Canada. Whoever wins this election will not be impacting her taxes, her family’s medical care, her children’s education, the environmental regulations in her country, how the food in her supermarket is regulated. I am sure there is some impact on her as she is still a citizen, does still have relatives and friends here, and there is some (minimal) influence on the U.S. from what happens in Canada…but for the most part the personal impact of this election on her family (and by family, I mean her her household and her chldren…since I assume for her as for me, they are the most important people in her life) is far less than it is for me.
