14 hours Ago By Staff Reporter
Over the course of the campaign, the Citizen’s Bruce Deachman asked 10 Ottawa-area residents how they approach elections and voting. Their responses were both varied and insightful. Take a look: Party or candidate? “I don’t always feel informed, or that politicians are always being honest during a campaign,” says Heather Pira of Alta Vista.
She wonders whether it’s best to vote for the party, or for the person. See what she decided here . Issues of importance Stephanie Laguerre started out by voting the way the rest of the family did.
But she’s become much more focused on big issues: women’s rights, youth, minorities and more, including how the act of voting itself is a way to contribute to the well-being of society. Read her thoughts here . Country first For Brad Fisher of Sandy Hill, it’s about saving the country from Donald Trump.
Fisher is a regular voter who doesn’t necessarily favour the same party each election. But this time, he’s definitely focused on how events in the U.S.
could affect Canada. “As one of my colleagues said, if we don’t have a country, then it really doesn’t matter after that,” he told the Citizen . Don’t take democracy for granted “Young voters don’t have any idea how fragile democracy is,” says Vicky Assad of Kanata.
“There’s a level of apathy that I don’t understand, and that’s really what my message is.” She urges everyone to cast a ballot. More of Vicky’s thoughts: When you grow up in a political family, you vote The polarization factor Twenty-one-year-old uOttawa student Brendan Saunders says so many issues and discussions are highly politicized these day: “No one is actually advocating for just genuine civic engagement.
” Social media is one culprit, and it’s turning off young people from getting involved in elections, he says. He has more to say here . When no party gets it quite right What do you do when no single party quite reflects your values? That’s the dilemma Miranda Gillingham of Overbrook faces at the ballot box.
“This election does feel different, and I feel that as I get older, it’s more confusing,” she notes. But she said she’ll cast a ballot anyway. From apathy to engagement Lesley Cockburn was once indifferent to voting, she admits.
“I voted once, just after I turned 18, because my father literally forced me to. And then I voted again when Justin Trudeau was elected. And that was it.
” But the ascent of Donald Trump has her seeing things differently. “I’ve read so much about the States and the amount of people that didn’t vote, and it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I’m part of the problem if things go wrong.’ ” Read about her voting evolution here .
Voting means you have a voice “Voting makes you feel you’ve arrived, that you have a voice, that you have opinions and a way of expressing them,” says Laraine Pederson of Orléans, who first voted in 1968 in the height of “Trudeaumania.” In this election, she’s worried about the military and who can stand up to Trump. “Voting makes you feel you’ve arrived, that you have a voice,” she told us .
Bringing the voting habit to Canada Azimul Islam, of Vanier, came to Canada in 1995 and is a regular voter. In fact, he first voted in Bangladesh when he was 18. “I was excited.
First-time voting is always exciting. It’s like ‘Now I am a citizen. Now I am an adult.
’ ” It’s a habit he proudly carried to Canada. Read his history here . Who can stand up to Trump? Michael Spillane of Beacon Hill hails from Ireland originally and got his Canadian citizenship three years ago.
He first voted in the Ontario election earlier this year. For him, as for some others, this election is about Donald Trump. “I’m not looking at my local candidates.
And I’m not tied to a party. I’m looking at the parties and their leadership, and deciding who’s going to be the best person to ride us through the next four or five years of this chaos that’s happening in the United States.” — As told to Bruce Deachman.
RelatedLetters: Vote for Canada to be a global leaderPellerin: What do the federal leaders think about Ottawa priorities?.
