As my partner and I sat down in our neighbourhood pub a couple of weeks ago, looking forward to some old-fashioned English fish and chips, I felt my phone vibrate. I couldn’t resist taking a quick peek to see who was texting me, and read this message:
“Hi, Pam. This is Mark Carney. I’m running for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party. . . “
You get the drift – he wanted my vote.
I resisted sending a smart-ass response and, as I ordered my fish and chips, wondered about the wisdom of my decision a few weeks before to join the Liberal Party of Canada.
I had done so before we knew the hell that Trump would soon unleash on the world; in particular, the potential impact of his call for tariffs and the annexation of Canada as well as the ways in which all of that might disorder the federal political arena in this country. At the time, I was terrified at the possibility of a Pierre Poilevre Conservative landslide victory that would see the loss of many of the modest advancements made over the past 15 or so years.
I decided to swallow hard and join a party I don’t have a lot of respect for because I thought Mark Carney would likely be best positioned to stave off such an outcome. To put my decision another way, as I texted to a friend:
“I have just joined the Liberal party so I can vote for an old, white, straight guy – what have we come to?”
Since then, I have rethought my decision several times.
Strategic voting
Despite my decision, in principle, I’m against strategic voting. I got talked into doing it once before. It didn’t make a jot of difference to the outcome, but it made me feel dirty. (Was it just a coincidence that my polling station was in the fertilizer aisle at my local Canadian Tire store or should I have found a message there?)
My own voting history is somewhat erratic. I grew up a white, middle-class kid in the suburbs, with parents who believed voting was not just a right but a responsibility. When we were each deemed old enough, our parents took my siblings and me with them when they voted, so we could see “democracy in action.” In high school, I was part of the debating team, where we often discussed federal and provincial politics, and I began canvassing for the NDP (and, briefly, dated the son of the incumbent NDP MP – I was a serious New Democrat!). By the time I was a young mother, I was a solid NDPer, working hard for the party during and between elections. Eventually, I ran as an NDP candidate — and lost — in the 1985 provincial election.
At some point, I lost my enthusiasm for first past the post electoral politics and — after being part of attempts to move the NDP back to its true socialist roots — with the party, as well. I’ve always gone to the polls on election day; but I sometimes decline my ballot, insisting that this be recorded, as allowed in Section 53 of Ontario’s Elections Act. (There is no such provision for federal elections.) I’m pretty sure this has not had much of an impact other than to annoy the returning officers who have to fill out a special form and the voters behind me who have to wait while this happens.
What’s to do?
With the results of Ontario’s provincial election fresh in our minds – just think how much housing could have been created with the money spent on an election that really changed nothing at all — I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering what we should do when the federal election rolls around.
The majority of Canadians seem to understand that we need major electoral reform. In his final days as PM, Justin Trudeau admitted that not moving ahead with it was one of his biggest regrets. (His unceremonious shutting down of the process and removal of MP Maryam Monsef, who had been charged with this responsibility after she was elected in 2015, would seem to cast a bit of doubt on the sincerity of his regret 10 years later.)
Part of the problem, of course, is that electoral reform always looks more attractive to politicians when they are seeking to be elected than it does once they are in power.
The day has come for political parties to embrace the concept of coalitions. Every politician should be required to watch Borgen, an excellent political drama series that follows the ins and outs of a Danish coalition government led by a woman prime minister. In provincial, territorial and federal elections, the parties need to get strategic and support one another rather than focusing on running a candidate in every single riding.
As for me – I’m not sure what I am going to do come the no-doubt soon-to-be-upon-us federal election. I might vote strategically; I might decline my ballot; I might vote with my heart.
Regardless of the outcome, though, I will continue to concentrate most of my energy on the politics that live outside the formal electoral process, working collectively with others to make all of our communities better places for everyone who lives in them.