Election 2011: And So It Comes

[dewline]

So...yesterday the last shoe finally dropped, and the HarperGov was officially found in contempt of Parliament. And so that government fell. Today, its leader spoke from Rideau Hall of asking for the dissolution of Parliament and a call for a federal election. He got both.

Thomas Walkom speaks of why what happened in the House of Commons matters, and as a voting-eligible citizen of Canada I do agree with his argument by and large.

For myself, I accept the possibility of a multi-party coalition government taking the reins of Canada as legally possible, ethically permissible, and depending on the needs of the country, pragmatically desirable. Mr. Harper's argument to the contrary is wrong.

I intend to vote with that firmly in mind and heart.

As for the rest of you: if you're Canadian and voting-eligible? I urge you to get out and find someone to vote for. Please.

Further: if you're one of those who is either truly apathetic or tempted to walk away in disgust from the process, may I suggest at least this: show up and refuse your ballot. I'm disinclined to suggest deliberate spoilage of ballots, though I acknowledge that the practice exists.

Comments

[shanejayell.livejournal.com]

I'm voting, of course. Not sure for who though, yet, other than NOT for conservatives.

[orleans.livejournal.com]

I'll vote Liberal, like I always do. ;) But I truly have voted in every single federal, provincial, and local election since I turned 18.

Settling?

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

The idea that there is something illegitimate about a coalition is laughable — or would be, if weren't for the fact it is being taken seriously and that Harper has used that non-existent bogeyman as his opening campaign gambit.

I'd like to predict that 2004 will come back to bite him in the ass on that, but I'll just say that I hope it does.

Anyway, to answer your question, I'll most likely be voting NDP, not out of any great enthusiasm, but because I'm in Ottawa Centre and Paul Dewar is the incumbent. But I'm frankly leaning Green (and the CBC's poll bears that out, too) and if it looks like Dewar's going to lose, that's quite possibly where my vote will go, since with public funding, a losing vote isn't a meaningless vote anymore.

I don't need to know...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

...who you're voting for. I don't even need to know whether or not you're going to vote.

I just want to help make sure that the turnout for the vote is higher than last time out.