Thursday, January 19, 2006

If a man protests

And nobody is around to hear him is it still a protest?

My wife and I have the same discussion about every 4-5 years; funny how it comes up at election time. I am of the opinion that there is no real fundamental difference between the political parties in Canada. Regardless of the election platforms and the political rhetoric they spew, the reality of the situation is that running a country requires some fundamental processes, and these are handled by the bureaucrats. Above and beyond that minority groups, financially powered corporate lobby groups and good old-fashioned patronage rule the day. For the average Joe Shmuck like me, do you really think the liberals are that different from the Conservatives.

Earlier today Y and I were discussing whom we should vote for. I replied that I was going to protest the lack of an honest party and real leadership by spoiling my ballot. Her reply was “Why waste your time by even going?”

I have always felt that if I did spoil my ballot it would be a protest sign that I did not favour the current crop of politicians, Yvonne’s claim is that nobody cares if the ballot was spoiled and it is not a protest of any measure.

I think she may have a point there. Of course I feel that not voting is a worse crime than spoiling a ballot, so how do you not-vote and vote at the same time?

4 Comments:

At 8:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was thinking recently of the old quesion "What if they called a war but nobody came?". I think it would be a great idea if absolutely nobody voted - think they'd get the message?

 
At 10:51 AM, Blogger Todd said...

by spoiling your ballot they don't think you are making a point. They think you are too stupid to read the directions.

 
At 6:57 AM, Blogger DaniGirl said...

You can always eat your ballot:

http://edibleballot.tao.ca/index.html

From what I understand, and I'm having a hard time finding a decent reference to confirm it, spoiled ballots simply get thrown in the garbage, whereas rejected ballots (returned blank) are somehow counted. But I can't find that anywhere and the unhelpful clerk at Elections Canada had no idea.

 
At 7:22 AM, Blogger DaniGirl said...

Ack. That was the wrong link. This one is the one I meant to post:

http://edibleballot.tao.ca/eat.html

 

Post a Comment

<< Home