Get Back Out There And Vote!

There are a lot of disappointed progressive voters out there after yesterday’s  election to nowhere.   $300 million dollars spent to keep things exactly as they are. Ho-hum. It’s so Canadian – I’m almost embarrassed.

It was the lowest voter turnout in a long, long time.  Maybe we should just get it over with and allow Canadians to put their X beside the word WHATEVER.  It might actually increase the voter turnout.

This entire thing was engineered to produce this exact result. The election was called while everyone was either at the cottage or deeply engrossed in the US national party conventions.  We barely caught our breath from getting the kids back to school and it was Thanksgiving weekend.  Come election day, most Canadians still stoned on tryptohan and barely made it back to work, much less to a polling station.

The Conservatives are safe for another four years.  They are safe from Canadian voters being swept up in a frenzy of hope and optimism after November’s US election. They are safe from the cries of Uncle Sam’s whiny baby brother screaming “we want an Obama too…why can’t we have an Obama…why do they get to have all the fun toys”.

So what now? It would be easy to fall into despair and think that we have to wait around for another change in 2012. That’s exactly what they want you to do. They want you to believe that government changes the world. “Oh well, I guess we’ll just go back to sleep for another four years.” Nothing could be further from the truth.  Today, things change so fast that government is usually out of breath, running to catch up to realities that are already well established in the marketplace, on the Internet and in our lives.

Government is not a change maker – you are!  The most powerful vote you have is how you spend your money. Don’t be disappointed that the Green Party didn’t elect a single representative to the House. No. Decide today that you are going to vote green with your money.  Every time a dollar leaves your hand you are making a powerful statement about how you want this world to be. Do you want it to organic or toxic? Do you want it to renewable or a wasteland? Do you want global human rights or an exploited labour market? Where are your mutual funds and RRSPs? Move them to ethical funds and make a powerful statement about whether you, literally, want windmills or wars.

Casting a ballot is important – no doubt. But let’s not allow the democratic process to lull us into lazy acceptance of the status quo. Let’s take stock of how we spend our money and get the satisfaction of voting everyday.