There has been a flurry of concern lately about what people see as voter apathy. And when voter turnout in federal and provincial elections heads toward the 50 per cent levels, we should be worried. What is wrong is not that the first-past-the-post voting is wrong or that attack advertising is turning people off. What is wrong is the political parties are letting us down. They are not doing their job.
The other day in a discussion with a local riding president, the question was asked of him what was needed in his newly formed riding. His answer was that he needed party executive members from one of the new areas. His existing executive does not have the get up and go to get out there and meet and interest people in the new area in the challenge and fun of participating in politics. The source of the apathy is right there on his riding executive.
Sure there are lots of external factors, pressures and misdirection but there is no excuse for a riding executive to allow gaping holes in their balanced representation of the riding.
We used to have choices when electing people to our riding executives. Today, it seems you have to use a press gang approach to find the people. They seem to enjoy the opportunity to sit and pontificate about their political opinions but when it comes to hard work, they get scarce.
A big part of the problem is the inexcusable top-down structure of our politics today. Party leaders are petty tyrants with the power to not only set policy and platforms but to appoint the party’s candidates and hire and fire throughout the party. The Conservatives and New Democrats have people detailed to police the riding association and approve their candidate choices (appointed by the party leader). The Liberals are just as disorganized as ever and have an inexperienced leader who interferes in riding decisions when he feels like it. (If he had not promised he would not do that, we would be more forgiving.)
But what the party leaders have done is create a swath of do-nothing riding associations across the country who are used to doing nothing. And they are good at it. Mind you, the Liberals and New Democrats are gradually realizing that the Conservatives are in full swing organizing their candidates for the coming federal election. Has the Conservative leader told them something that he has not told the rest of us? Do we really know when the next federal election will be called?
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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