The Vote

The older I get the more interested I become in politics - and I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. Given the state of politics these days where corporations buy the vote (especially in the US where an activist supreme court declared that corporations are people and have the same rights), politics can be frustrating and discouraging.

So - yesterday the Nanaimo Daily News ran an editorial lamenting the fact that Natives and young people don't vote. This followed on the heels of Natives complaining that not one of the four old white men who lead the main political parties were addressing Native concerns. The editorial took the position that if Natives and young people want their issues addressed, then they should vote - because only people who actually vote will get these people elected. Ergo - they will only address issues pertinent to getting votes.

Frankly, I think that's a very specious argument. What came first - the chicken or the egg?

It is the responsibility of politicians to address our concerns. It is up to them to share a vision with us of a future Canada - a vision that will engage the entire population. What we appear to have is a bunch of old guys who want to make their corporate partners happy.

Young people matter. Look at what Obama did in 2008. He engaged young people and they played an enormous part in making him president. If he'd pouted and said, to heck with them - they don't vote anyway - what would that election year have looked like?

Young people are the future of our country. Of course politicians have to consider them - and they have to make them want to vote. That goes for young Natives and young immigrants and even young white men.

Everyone matters - not just the ones who can be relied on to turn out and vote. Maybe if we had a democracy that engaged us, the 41 percent who don't vote, would.