Sunday, October 11, 2015

This is Canada ...



Pass this on. Get out and vote.

According to Elections Canada, 850,000 people voted at advance polls on Friday and 780,000 people voted on Saturdaya 34% increase over 2011. A good start.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hopefully voter turnout remains high!

Lulymay said...

I live in Coquitlam, Allison, and the polling booth we are using for advanced voting was really busy on Sunday as well. I think the numbers are going to be equally high for Sunday too. Today, Monday, is heavy rains which might not see so many out and about. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this is a positive sign.

Scotty on denman said...

I hope the longer than normal lineups at advance polls indicate a new trend in turnout, from downward to upward, for the first time in a long time (maybe it'll be called "The Great Turnout Turnaround").

So many new and different things in this election: although a decade old, the Con government is nevertheless the most recent and the worst ever---that's kinda new; first shot at government for NDP; if the Liberals form government, it'll be (I think) the first time a party went from third place to first place in a single go. Thirty new seats; new riding boundaries (mine doesn't remotely resemble the old one, now having both east and west coasts of the Island), and some new candidates, including the one in my riding likely to beat the incumbent Conservative--- whose government, BTW, is the first (and only) to have been found in contempt of parliament.

I think there'll be more than a few first-time voters this time; on the under hand, the Cons' new electoral rules will doubtlessly yield first-time disenfranchisees. It's the first time in over thirty years I never got a voter-card in the mail.

First time anyone's seen a campaign this long---almost 140 years since the longest one ever (this one ranks second). I know I've never seen a party campaign by locking people out of campaign rallies, and forbidding candidates to attend all-candidates' meetings, another first, I think (normally most parties try to get as much exposure for their election planks as possible). And this is the first time strategic voting has gotten this much interest--- probably it'll be the first time it has any impact. I'm just lucky my preferred candidate is also the strategic choice in this awesome new gerrymander.

It's the first incumbency for the Greens'. Many of them will probably wait for the delayed polls on voting day so's to better discern the strategic candidate most likely to beat the Conservative---except many Greens have a second strategy of electing a government committed to electoral reform, as both big opposition parties have done, and have a realistic chance of getting it done (of course if Harper wins, reform'll be done, alright---like Thanksgiving turkey, which won't help the Greens---or the environment---one bit).

Two of my neighbours, each a lifelong Conservative and Liberal, are voting NDP---both for the very first time. They were at Mulcair's rally at the K'omoks Friendship Centre today, and I think they might have voted at the advance poll in Courtenay (they brought me a "STOP HARPER" sign, orange, gone look great in the hatchback window). It's too expensive for me to take the ferry too many times a month, so I'll be casting my ballot nearer to home next Monday. Traditionally turnout is fairly heavy here---bring a snack or a book---and driver's licence, and mail with both my street and PO Box address on it, birth certificate, passport, social insecurity number, government services card, Thrifty's points-card, and an upstanding acquaintance or two to vouch for me if needs be---this is definitely NOT going to be the first time I ever get disqualified from voting---no way!

I was kind of hoping, Alison, that we might see one more (two or three would be better) addition to your parade of perps before democracy's most dramatic day; of course there's nothing new about Conservative ne'er-do-wells, is there... but maybe they've been minding their Ps and Qs special; after all, one more perp and it's almost certainly curtains for the Cons.

Peace & Happy Voting!

Anonymous said...

Nice post Scott,

http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/pete+mcmartin+voter+registration+glitch+keeps+growing/11428713/story.html

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