There must be a better way to spend a hot summer than arguing about how we vote for our federal government in Canada. Reading the transcripts or watching recorded hearings of the commons special committee on electoral reform, it is hard to tell if anyone appearing before the committee really knows how Canadians vote and why. It just seems appropriate to understand that before sailing into the uncharted waters of new systems for voting.
What is important to understand is that Canadians rarely change their allegiance from one party to another party. Those who go eagerly to the polls are generally fixated on voting for the same-old, same-old. Those voters who really have no strong leanings are few.
And it is not a designated group of voters whose role it is to change allegiance and vote for a party different from that they last voted for. It does not work that way. Canadian voters are more like the vast tectonic plates that make up the outer shell of our planet. The shifts in these plates are slow and almost unnoticeable except by the finest scientific instruments. You would never note a shift unless it confuses your car’s global positioning system.
But in politics, a couple percentage points shift in allegiance from this party to that party can have far reaching effects. That is why you want to know where that new young vote is headed. And sometimes you get the trend of those who did not vote last time but will vote this time. Or those who make excuses for not voting this time. It is rarely a radical process.
And some people are sensitive to these shifts and some are not. Most pollsters are misled by their own preconceptions. It is as though they do not believe that some people would lie to them. And who do they think answers the household telephone in a home with children? Those automated calls with press one for the Conservative, two for the Liberal and so on are something of a joke. In the 2015 federal election, we watched Éric Grenier’s Poll Tracker for the CBC wander through scenarios for three different winning parties and all the time, we knew only the Liberals would be there for the end game.
But listening to the different academics give their sales pitches, it becomes obvious that none of them really has an overview of the problems facing the Canadian voter. The best example of this is everybody thinks we should get more people to vote. Which shows they do not understand. The only way that everyone can feel comfortable about voting is when they include a final option on the ballot allowing us to vote for: None of the above.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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