Apathy and that low voter turnout

We live in a comfortable country. And in a country like Canada there is a tendency for voters to become complacent. People in this province seem to be content enough with the McGinty Liberals that they feel there is no great need for change. So a large part of the low voter turnout in the recent provincial election suggests they are happy enough with the status quo.

This whole thing about getting young people more involved in the political system has some serious faults. On a recent TVO Agenda program, hosted be Steve Paikin, many on a panel of mostly party hacks expressed the view that young people are disengaged in politics with the obvious assumption that getting involved in party politics, by young people, would be a good thing.

I've met and talked to young kids involved with political parties and I can tell you one thing for sure: it's no place for children (people under 30). Frankly, some of these kids really scare me. Kids today are busily involved in the world already. They're often brighter and better informed than many people over forty that I talk to who I find to be stubborn and pertinacious. Party hacks, like those on the 'Agenda', look to exploit unspoiled young adults as malleable targets for their often questionable ideologies and party dogma. They act like it's about religion and they're on an evangelical mission. There is no need to rush people in their teens and twenties into any official party system. We need them as fresh, less indoctrinated observers. We need to learn from them. And if they don't end up voting it kind of tells us something. Party politics, rightfully, should be for the old and, hopefully, wise.

The question of voter apathy is a more troubling matter. I will be marching in next Saturday's anti-war march in Toronto and I will be surprised if there are a thousand people in the street. Similar demonstrations in Montreal brings out crowds in the tens of thousands, while in Washington or London protesters number in the hundreds of thousands. Why are people in this city so unconcerned? This at a time when Dick Cheney seems determined to save the Bush administration's place in history, he thinks, by bombing Iran. And we carry on sacrificing the lives of Canadian soldiers in an un-winnable war that is mostly in support of Washington's failed and morally corrupt agenda. That's real apathy.