Well our provincial election is over with only 50% of the eligible voters turning out to choose the future direction of our province. Many people said their lack of vote expressed their protest by choosing none of the above. Unfortunately their lack of vote is totally indistinguishable from apathy. When governments count on public apathy to allow them to force and manipulate their agendas through the system, apathy is a very dangerous threat against democracy.
I heard an interesting interview conducted by Peter Brown following the election. He was interviewing two political scientists to get their insights on the election results. He noted that the Wildrose Party had much more support in southern Alberta than northern Alberta and asked his subjects why. The agreed response was that southern Alberta was feeling neglected by the ruling Progressive Conservatives over lack of government support after the southern province endured spring flooding. When Peter Brown expressed confusion as to why, if the people felt they were not getting enough government assistance, would they vote for an even further right wing party whose stated platform is for smaller government and less handouts. Both scientists just shrugged and said it made absolutely no sense to them either.
There definitely is a danger that ignorance can play a major role in an election. Obviously a lot of damage can come about from ignorance but no where near the damage that can be inflicted by apathy. Ignorance and apathy go hand in hand and one fuels the other but I feel that the solution lies in educating ourselves. At a minimum, we should spend the time to understand who we are voting for and what they actually stand for.
I heard an interesting interview conducted by Peter Brown following the election. He was interviewing two political scientists to get their insights on the election results. He noted that the Wildrose Party had much more support in southern Alberta than northern Alberta and asked his subjects why. The agreed response was that southern Alberta was feeling neglected by the ruling Progressive Conservatives over lack of government support after the southern province endured spring flooding. When Peter Brown expressed confusion as to why, if the people felt they were not getting enough government assistance, would they vote for an even further right wing party whose stated platform is for smaller government and less handouts. Both scientists just shrugged and said it made absolutely no sense to them either.
There definitely is a danger that ignorance can play a major role in an election. Obviously a lot of damage can come about from ignorance but no where near the damage that can be inflicted by apathy. Ignorance and apathy go hand in hand and one fuels the other but I feel that the solution lies in educating ourselves. At a minimum, we should spend the time to understand who we are voting for and what they actually stand for.
“Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.” - Bodie Thoene (b. 1951)
1 comment:
And for our local elections which has even more impact on our daily lives, only 20% came to vote.
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