We will have a chance to see tomorrow how many of our fellow Ontario voters got to the polls in this provincial election. I might be surprised if more than six out of ten bothered. It has not been a campaign that generated any excitement.
It was obvious in the ten days of advance polls that the amount of interest in the campaign was limited. If we had reduced the advance polls to two days, there might have been a few short line-ups. The ten days was a waste of money. And the only politicians to benefit from it were incumbents. It freed up election-day workers for their campaigns. The workers could concentrate on getting out the vote on the final election day.
I must admit that I have never really liked the election day effort. I don’t like feeling like a nag. I have heard many hundreds of reasons why people did not make it to mark their ballot. I was always happy to have some other duties for that day. Most often, I would opt for getting the counting of the vote properly organized and displayed at the after-the-vote party.
I think what annoyed me the most on election day were the radio people encouraging people to get out and vote—no matter how they intended to vote. I always thought they were encouraging stupid people to go do something stupid. It has always struck me that we should make voters prove they have seriously thought about it, before they are allowed to vote.
Not everyone agrees with me. A chap I once knew gave a Kiwanis Club speech about stupid people being just as entitled to stupid representation. He was actually alibiing the stupid people who elect stupid politicians. I think, it is likely, this election has proved him right once again.
I have often made the point that good leadership can help alleviate the problems of having stupid politicians on the back benches. Mind you, this current Ontario campaign has not been noted for the genius of our party leaders. Oh well, another four years and who knows?
-30-
Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to: