Frustrations with the upcoming Canadian Federal Election
The federal election is scheduled for October 19th this Fall. It’s still five weeks away, and it already promises to make history. It looks likely we will see Harper’s Conservatives be defeated after a 9 year reign, now that they are 3rd in the polls. The Liberals and the NDP promised, among many other things, to do their best to reform or even abolish the senate and implement proportional representation. My hopes are up there that they will reverse Canada’s current course under the Conservatives. Seriously, If you still consider the Conservatives competent, you have a lot (quick summary) of catching up (an oldie but a goodie) to do (not for TL;DR people).
I have several frustrations to share with the current election. The Conservatives passed not so long ago a piece of legislation called the Fair Elections Act. The most infuriating part of the Fair Elections Act is that Elections Canada, the non-partisan organization organizing and overseeing the electoral process is not allowed to promote voter turn-out anymore. The Conservatives argued that it’s the job of the political parties to do so, as if ensuring a proper democratic process was a partisan affair. Elections Canada had programs that were dedicated to encourage students to vote, and for children to be sensitized to the importance of participating in democracy as adults. Now, it’s all gone. Never has a piece of legislation from the Conservatives been so deserving of the qualifier “Orwellian”, although it is far from the only one.
The Conservatives are outspending their rivals 2 to 1 during this unusually long campaign. They have more means to promote voter turn-out than any other party. They are not spending any time encouraging people to vote for anyone but themselves. They got caught with the robocalls last election. In a show of good faith, they put in some legislation to prevent this kind of thing happening again in the Fair Elections Act. Still, they are trying to find other ways to tip the system in their favor.
One thing that affects me directly is that starting July 20th this year, a Canadian citizen must spend less than 5 years abroad to be considered eligible to vote by special ballot. I am currently abroad, and I am required to give a date of return to Canada. Actually, this requirement has been there for a long time in the Canada Elections Act, but was struck down last year by the Ontario Superior Court. The Ontario Court of Appeal however reversed the decision this year in July. In the US, citizens can vote as long as they are citizens. In Canada, we have this stupid notion that in the 21st century, being a citizen involves being firmly planted geographically in your home country.
I don’t live in Canada right now, but politics in Canada still impact my life in many ways. I have all sorts of accounts there, I have a Canadian passport, and some of the people who are dearest to me live there. Conservatives claim that “Permitting all non-resident citizens to vote would allow them to participate in making laws that affect Canadian residents on a daily basis, but have little to no practical consequence for their own daily lives.” This is ludicrous, especially nowadays. I’m not past the 5 year limit yet, but there is a chance I will be next election.
Last federal election in 2011, I voted in the Burnaby riding in BC for Kennedy Stewart. I couldn’t have been happier with my choice. Kennedy has been very active trying to defend and improve the state of science in Canada. He was also with the crowd on Burnaby Mountain during the protests against the less than legitimate attempt by Kinder Morgan to do some prospector work in a conservation area. Now the Burnaby riding has been split in Burnaby North and Burnaby South. My last place of residence in Canada is now in the Burnaby North riding, while Kennedy is running in the Burnaby South riding. Well, so much for that. I hope the NDP candidate in Burnaby North, Carol Baird Ellan, is just as dedicated, well-informed and competent as Kennedy.
I received my special ballot two weeks ago, and it’s a special thing to behold indeed. It’s just a piece of ordinary paper, mostly black with a white rectangle in the middle to write down the name of my candidate of choice. Then, I need to put it into this inner envelope, which goes into the outer envelope, which goes into the mailing envelope. I’m voting with Russian dolls in the 21st century…
I understand the need to write the candidate’s name down instead of having a checklist like a normal ballot. The campaign is far from over, and not every candidate is officially registered. Still, it creates opportunities for electors to make mistakes and have their vote discarded. It’s not the level of robustness you would hope for for something as important as an election, especially in the Internet era. The many envelopes still make it feel pretty official though (in a ritualistic kind of way).
I went on Elections Canada’s website to find out who’s the NDP candidate in Burnaby North. I was surprised (or not) to find out only the Conservative candidate was registered already. They only recently updated with more candidates. I guess that’s the advantage of being the party in power: you decide when to call the election. You can prepare in advance, leaving the other parties in a scramble to organize.
Seriously, it’s pathetic that in Canada, at the federal level, you get only one vote to decide everything. In the US, they vote separately for their president, their house representatives and their senators. I feel the need to stress that they elect their senators. I’m not saying the state of democracy in better in the States than in Canada. They have different kinds of problems (ahum… Trump). Nevertheless, they don’t have to struggle with an awkward choice if they like a party’s leader but not the party’s representative in their district. There’s a lot of room for improvement in Canada’s electoral system. I remain convinced that the voter turn-out would be better if you just made the whole process actually convenient by today’s standards. Maybe the Liberals and the NDP will manage to fix some of it if they can agree on how.
This piece came out while I was drafting this post. It’s from the Guardian, so even international media notice how creepy our democracy has become under Harper.
