Dear Mom the Vote Facebook Participants

Posted on April 28, 2011 by amoment2think

A couple weeks ago I joined the Mom the Vote facebook page. Well, actually, amoment2think joined the Mom the Vote facebook page. Anyway.

I think there has been a lot of good thing come out of Mom the Vote and I applaud the founders for starting it.

But. I have to say I am very bothered by the tone of the discussion. And I don’t think I am the only one. It feels like a place where everyone is yelling over each other to be heard, rather then a place where everyone considers and try’s to understand others perspectives. There is far more ‘debate’ then ‘discussion’ happening. And more often then not, the conversation turns into a partisan colored attack on each other, rather then a conversation that would lead to better ideas and understanding.

Honestly, I have read some pretty disturbing things in the tone and the way people are interacting with each other.

The thing is– this helps no one. It just perpetuates the idea that politics is a nasty business with mud slinging. It make new-comers who come to the page not want to be there. Do you want to walk into a room where everyone is yelling at each other? Where no one respects the value of what everyone else has to say.

I think all those who are engaging actively in the page are being confronted with people who have very different values and beliefs then them. And I get that this can be challenging. It can get our backs up and make it hard to keep our cool.

But for a movement where the main purpose is to engage mothers (and everyone else) in a discussion and try and get more mom’s to vote… well…. its not a very nice place to be.

So I would like to respectfully request that everyone just tone it down a notch. Share your perspective, sure, but try and do so with a lot less vibrato. Lets show them that moms know how to work together and treat each other kindly. Lets show that politics is important and not just about mug slinging. Please.

Conservatives shouldn’t take votes for granted

Posted on April 25, 2011 by amoment2think

I really don’t like the concept of ‘swing’ versus ‘safe’ seats in elections. I mean, I know it describes a political reality; that there are some riding’s that are more easily predicted then others. If they aren’t easy to predict and citizens votes shift from election to election, it make sense that politicians put more effort into those riding’s because their efforts are more likely to pay off with voters who are predisposed to changing their vote. Conversely, if it is pretty clear that the majority of voters in a riding very consistently vote for the incumbents party… then the chances of changing their vote is much lower.

But I don’t like it. More specifically, I don’t like ‘safe’ riding’s. I don’t think they are good for the citizens of those riding’s and I don’t think they are good for democracy in general. They just increase our already eroding voter turnout and engagement.

To me, elections are about more then just voting. They are an opportunity to have a conversation as a country about what matters to us and what are priorities are. My feeling is that those in swing riding’s engage more in that conversation then do those in safe riding’s.

I live in Calgary, Alberta. Every seat in Alberta, with the exception of one in Edmonton (Edmonton-Strathcona) is considered a ‘safe’ Conservative seat. Albertans (and more specific Calgarians) have been voting Conservative (before them Canadian Alliance and before that Reform) for a long long time. In fact, I would claim that most of Calgary’s riding’s are the very definition of ‘safe’ seats.

What this means to me, as a voter in one of these ‘safe’ riding’s, is that no one is trying to get my vote. So far in the this election I have seen a few signs around the neighbour hood (which all seemed to go up this week) and had one flyer dropped off. I have not seen or heard from a single candidate. One one is showing up at any events I have heard of (which means they might be going to events but not doing a good job at getting the word out about when and where) and no one is knocking on doors. If I want to know about each candidate- I need to seek the information out.

Every one is talking about the use of social media in this election as a took to engage voters. In terms of social media, Liberal Jennifer Pollock seems to be the most active (http://twitter.com/#!/jcpollock). Green party candidate William Hamilton is also using social media (http://twitter.com/#!/beltliner403). But neither had been engaging enough for me to see anything from them via my social network; again, I looked them up. Lee Richardson is not on twitter at all and has a very ugly website. The NDP candidate was replaced last minute and is from Edmonton. She has missed at least one debate and her online presence is nil as far as I can tell. So while 2 of the candidates are trying to use social media to engage, the other 2 are not at all.

Essentially, the Conservatives are taking votes for granted and none of the other candidates seem to be bothering to put up a good fight. And, as a result, Calgary’s voters are likely to not turn up at the polls in any great numbers.

In 2008, Alberta’s voter turnout was one of the worst in the country; 52.9%. By contrast, PEI had a voter turnout of 69.5% This election, about the same is expected.

I will be voting in Calgary Centre. And according to a website called “Project Democracy” there are about 88000 voters in this riding. Which means last election about 46552 people are expected to vote in this riding, if the same voter turnout numbers hold. Project Democracy estimates that 46900 people with vote and 21343 of those votes will be going to the Conservatives. *

But what would happen if Calgary Centre had the voter turnout of PEI? All of a sudden, there would be 14608 voters up for grabs. If you add those 14608 votes to the next closest rival to the Conservatives (the Liberals) they could win the seat by 4400 votes.

Now, obviously, not all ‘extra’ voter turnout is going to go to one party. But, if there was a good rival to the Conservative in the riding, who was engaging and convincing voters to vote for them, they could also steal votes from the other ‘left of centre’ parties in the riding. When you look at all the left of centre votes plus all the people that don’t vote, any of the 3 opposing parties could potentially win with a good campaign.

I am trying to make the point that no seat is 100% safe. Candidates in every riding should be getting out there and engaging with people to try and win our votes. Tell me why you want me to vote for me. ASK ME FOR MY VOTE. That should be Politics 101. Instead, I feel like the incumbents all over Alberta are taking our votes for granted. From Rob Anders in Calgary North who snubs debates and isn’t even supported by his riding association to Lee Richardson who doesn’t even bother to try and engage online.

I just don’t buy Conservative MP Lee Richardson’s claim that Calgarians are content with what they see happening in Ottawa. According to the Calgary Beacon, “He says voters are telling him on the doorstep that they’re happy with the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. Voters aren’t apathetic, just content, he said. They tell him the Stephen Harper government is doing a good job and they’re confident Calgary will continue to elect Conservative MPs.” Regardless of if I buy it or not, I think we need to show up at the polls and have our say, safe riding or not.

I know this may all seem unrealistic. Reality is that voter turnout here is likely not to jump to that of PEI’s. But consider the huge change in voter turnout in our Civic Election last fall. “Preliminary 2010 voter turn-out is 53.24% of eligible voters compared to 32.9 % in the 2007 General Election.”

That voter turnout happened because a candidate, Nenshi, actually engaged in a real conversation with Calgarians. When the civic election started, Nenshi was way behind the front runners in the polls. (I can’t find a stat for this, but just trust me, I remember). However, over the course of the election race he climbed up the polls on account of his engagement with voters, particularly young voters. Nenshi’s platform is not one that Calgarians have tended to vote for, but they did.

So my point is this: anyone can win any riding with the right ideas and the right campaign. And we, as voters, have to demand more from our politicians and stop rewarding those who don’t engage.

*Project Democracy updates its numbers every Monday, which means my numbers could be off by the time you read this. I based this information on the numbers projected on their site on Sunday April 24th.

Photo by Cliff1066 via Flickr Creative Commons

Mom the Vote

Posted on April 22, 2011 by amoment2think

So after feeling all cynical and grumpy about the upcoming Canadian Election (see this uninspiring post) I came across the #MomtheVote campaign on Twitter. Started by two Canadian Bloggers, Karen Green (The Kids are Alright, and @karengreeners on Twitter) and Emma Waverman (Embrace the Chaos and @emmawaverman on Twitter) the goal of #MomtheVote is to encourage discussion and interest in the federal election by specifically addressing issues that Mom’s want to talk about. The movement seems to have some momentum, as does the youth vote movement. Rather then, as some suggest, this is just the ‘momification’ of everything— I see Mom the Vote as a very clever way to get an already established social community to engage with an important issue. Democracy.

I think the reason that so few people vote has a lot to do with engagement… feeling like one plays an active and important role in the conversations. By just giving specific groups the opportunity to engage in the conversation within a community they already feel comfortable, engagement increases.

So I am very very supportive of the Mom the Vote movement. I strongly believe that if more Canadians were more engaged a lot of good things could happen:

1) I think the government would more accurately reflect the believes and values of Canadians

2) I think politicians would be held more accountable and not able to get away with the ridiculous crap they pull now

3) I believe we could push for electoral reform to create a electoral system that would better allow representation of Canadians

4) I believe politics would shift to the left slightly, which in my opinion is a good thing. I think a lot of people who are sitting the elections out are those who want to vote Green or NDP, but don’t feel their votes count.

Beyond all that, I believe it is important to be engaged as citizens. As Rick Mercer pointed out in his famous ‘rant’, there are people all over the world who would do anything to have a say in our government. We do (although I do believe our system is broken) and yet almost half of us don’t bother going to the polls.

So, I beg of you, vote. And don’t get vote- get involved in your community. Talk about the issues that matter to you. Engage over at the #momthevote facebook page. Because it matters. There are power in numbers and instead of feeling like we have no impact on what happens in Ottawa, we need to stand up and be heard.

Voter Apathy-R-Us

Posted on April 16, 2011 by amoment2think

I want to write a post about how disappointed I am so far with how apathetic Calgary seems to be about the upcoming Federal Election. Actually I want to write two open letters- one to voters and one to local candidates/national parties. I want to ask them to all get involved and actually make a difference in this election. Because it bothers me, this attitude, that Alberta and Calgary in particular, is ‘already decided’. (For those of you not familiar with Canadian politics, 99% of Alberta seats in the Federal election pretty much always go Conservative. No. Matter. What.)

But here is the thing. Apathy breeds apathy.

I doubt I can have an impact so I have started to feel very ho hum about the election myself. Blasphame for a Political Science Graduate.

But really. When you look at the Canadian situation from an objective political perspective you have 1 party on the fiscal/social conservative side of the spectrum and 3 political parties on the fiscal/social liberal side of the spectrum. If we make the assumption that the Canadian public is pretty evenly distributed in a bell curve over that spectrum, with the majority sitting somewhere in the middle, then we can reasonably conclude that when you have one party with about the same potential supports that 3 parties have to split… you see where I am going with this. Election decided before it begins.

So it seems like all the issues, all the debate, all the discussion are for not. 1. The political landscape is skewed in favour of the Conservatives and 2. The local political landscape is so predictable in its vote that no one bothers to even talk about it here.

Hence, myself, as a realatively ‘engaged’ voter feels totally disengaged. Because, honestly, my vote doesn’t count. It just doesn’t.

No one is knocking on my door. No one is going to call. Chances are not all the candidates in my riding will show up to any debates.

Apathy breeds apathy.

This whole concept of ‘left and right’ does a total dis-service to democracy if you ask me. Voting becomes more a statement of ‘who you are’ then ‘what you believe’. Parties campaign on identity, not on policy. It is about who you ‘belong with’, not who will actually make this country a better place. And no one, not politicians or citizens or media is doing anything to actually make a shift in the landscape.

I can’t tell you how distributing I find it that in a city, with a sort of rampant entrepreneurial spirit and a very merit based bias when it comes to business, that the majority of Calgarians just check off the box for the Conservative candidate, despite the complete lack of integrity and transparency of both the leader of the party and a number of the local candidates. (Rob Anders, I am talking about you.)

I have no idea what I am going to do in the election and quite honestly, I am sure it doesn’t matter. Even if there was a shift and the ‘other party able to form government’ won… it would still be same old same old. Broken promises, lack of integrity, inability to actually make things any better for citizens. And I suspect that if either of the national parties who are considered “not capable of forming government” actually did form a government, they would make changes for all of about 6 months, until they got hammered in the polls and then shifted back to the politics of satisfying the election monster rather then good policy.

Yes, we are lucky to even have democracy. But when are we going to start caring, en masse, that our system is broken? The heck with a vote of non-confidence in our elected government. How about a vote of non-confidence in our whole political system? Who’s in?

Photo by ItzaFineDay via Flickr Creative Commons