1 week Ago By Monica Zurowski, Calgary Herald
Too many Canadians don’t vote. Too many of us feel our vote doesn’t matter, that it won’t make a difference. But it does matter.
Now more than ever. For all the Canadians who have hung out flags, who are buying Canadian products, who are worried about Donald Trump, our economic future and how Canada manages given the state of the world, voting is right up there as a patriotic action to be taken. Every vote does, in fact, count.
It counts not just to elect a government and members of Parliament but as a personal expression of belief in Canada. And democracy. It’s easy to offer motherhood assertions about how voting is one of the most important rights citizens have in democratic countries.
Still, that sentiment takes on more meaning and severity when the foundations of our society — and indeed democracy — are threatened. There are many people in the United States who didn’t vote, and now wish they had. This is the most important federal election in decades.
As Canadians, casting a vote can also send a message to the world. In recent decades, voter turnout, often considered an important sign of the vitality of a democracy, has been decreasing globally. Canada has a long history of voter apathy.
Voter turnout was 62.2 per cent in the 2022 federal election, 59.9 per cent in the 2023 Alberta election and 46.
6 per cent in the 2021 municipal election in Calgary. It’s not a new issue. And it’s not limited to Canada.
For the first time in two decades, the number of countries worldwide considered democracies by The Varieties of Democracy project at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg has fallen below the number considered to be autocracies, 88 versus 91. It’s worth repeating — there are now more autocracies in the world than democracies — and that doesn’t even count what seems to be happening south of the border. It’s a worrying trend, to say the least.
Low voter turnout in elections has negative consequences for countries, from decreased legitimacy of governments to the marginalization of minority groups. It allows governments to be less responsive to the priorities and best interests of citizens. There are many reasons for voter apathy, but we can no longer afford inaction.
The recent shock to our political, economic and social order may have been what we need to shake Canadians out of our collective indifference..
