Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Election Day

Well, today is Canada's national election. As a concerned, freedom loving, democracy supporting citizen, I voted. I am very grateful for where I live and the freedoms I enjoy on a daily basis and am not about to devalue that by ignoring my chance to have my say (for what good it does) in who leads my country. It upsets me that my city has something like a 20% voter turnout, especially when there's advanced polling and employers who actually get buses to take their employees into town to vote. After how hard people have worked so that we can have what we have, there is no excuse.

Having said that, remember when I posted this? And how determined I was to really and truly educate myself in the issues of this election? It didn't last too long. I had such a hard time listening to all the rhetoric. Everyone speaking for their own gain. Listening to politicians speak about the same event and having completely different truths...someone had to be lying. I even watched the leaders debate, well part of it anyways. And because I hate conflict, it's hard for me to watch. Pathetic, I know.

So, I voted more by elimination (who I didn't want to see in power) than commitment to a party or leader. I chose the most important issues for me, weighed it against my understanding of how the parties worked, took a hard look at the leaders and how I thought they would represent my country then considered our local candidate and voila...I had my choice.

What can I say? It is what it is.

But dontcha think that life is often like that? We make our decisions based on what we don't want rather than what we do want? I don't want to be fat, so I count points. I don't want a dirty house, so I clean it. We don't want to be poor, so we work...even if we hate our job. All I ever really wanted when I was working outside the home was to be passionate about what I was doing, but instead I was there solely for the paycheck. Too often the choices we're forced to make are simply the lesser of the evils instead of what we really want. Are we settling or is that just what life is?

Can't you tell I'm feeling chipper and positive today?

2 comments:

  1. I don't want to be fat so I count points...
    I don't want to go into public with monsters or I don't want to raise humans that won't contribute positivly to the environment around them, so I discipline them rather than turning up the tv and ignoring them...

    I sooooooo understand what you are saying! i wish our election day was here so that the commercials will stop bugging me with all of the....well, you know... ugh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I vote by elimination too. Although we do have a good MP here that has been in for 2 elections already.

    ReplyDelete