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As many observers have pointed out, perhaps the most important statistic from the election was voter turnout: only 52.5% of registered voters, down from 62% in the 2005 election and down a whopping 25 points from 1983. There are all sorts of explanations for the decline, and all sorts of suggestions to reverse it. I have neither. However, I would observe that although I did vote myself, I came very close to not doing so. I live in a riding where the outcome was a foregone conclusion. I supported the opposition candidate, who stood no chance of winning, so what incentive was there for me to vote? No matter what I did, the outcome would be the same.

In the end, I cast a ballot, more because it is engrained in me to do so than because I felt any enthusiasm for my choices. In fact I have always believed that not voting is a viable choice and for many years I didn’t, arguing that I was waiting for one or other of the parties to put forward policies that appealed to me. Why should I vote for someone just because they were the only thing on offer? If the pool of non-voters gets large enough, won’t the parties tweak their policies in order to swim in it?

Voting activists propose a variety of innovations to get out the vote. Many of these involve making it easier for people to cast their ballots, but I don’t really think ease of voting is the issue. How difficult is it to walk a couple of blocks and cast your ballot? The issue is motivation. Short of making voting compulsory, perhaps only a return to the highly polarized political culture we used to have in the province will get more people to the polls. And do we really want that?

Labels: POLITICS

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