Feb 19 2009
Democracy and You
Democracy is defined as: A form of government or organization in which the citizens or members choose leaders or make other important decisions by voting.
We in Canada have the right to vote and are able to exercise that right with out interference. So why do forty percent stay home on voting day? Maybe they just aren’t into it or maybe they aren’t into to the political party system or the leaders.
I’ve talked to many people who believe that their vote doesn’t count. That it doesn’t matter which party gets elected nothing will change. I’ve been told that politicians are all lairs and will say what you want to hear to get a vote. There is truth in those observations but not for the reasons one might think.
How did we get to the point where so many people are disillusioned? Well simply put we are elected by poles and governed by ideology. Political parties poll the voters to find out what the important issues are for the majority. Sometimes it’s easy for example when there is high unemployment and a poor economy they develop a position which they believe would get the majority of voters to vote for them. It works because they regurgitate the information that the pollsters got from you and me.
Companies that do poles ( surveys)on voters are very good at getting the most accurate information from voters. They know for example that of the 40% that don’t vote the vast majority come from 2 groups the young and the poor. When they call to find out what’s on the voters mind the don’t call poor neighborhoods or apt buildings. They know that baby boomers and seniors are the largest voting block so they will ask qualifying questions like are you between 18 and 30, 30 and 45, 45 and 60 and over 60.
Another question might be: how important is the environment to you “not important”, “somewhat important”, “very important”, “extremely important” to you. Hopefully you get the idea. The party strategists then develop an election platform based on the poles results.
The next step is to develop an advertisement campaign. There are 2 types of ads. First they develop ads based on the polling information. They incorporate the concerns that were identified in the poles and the proposed solution for those concerns in ads targeted towards to people that normally vote.
Second they develop ads that discredit the other party, it’s leaders and their proposed solutions. In Canada the attack ads are usually directed toward the other party platforms. Recently they have become more vicious and directed at party leaders. Ads work for companies and they work for election campaigns.
So what can we do? Well for starters we can ignore the political ads and do our own research. When we get poled we could give false answers or not do the poles. We could make it illegal to do poles during an election campaign. We could have the party leaders hooked up to a lie detectors during the debates hey I’m just say’in it might help. One thing is for sure we need to find a better way to hold politicians to a higher standard.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
You mention attack ads as a means of getting people to come out and vote. I suspect that they have quite the opposite effect. For example, in the last year, the Conservatives posted the “Stephane Dion is not a Leader” ads, and the result was that hoards of Liberal voters stayed home. Nothing anyone did could help Dion recover from that image of him shrugging his shoulders, and an image is a powerful thing. It creates a sense of disillusionment, both for the attacked person and the attacking party.
I also wonder what role political comedy plays in voter turnout. I like the comedy, but I sometimes wonder if it creates in Canadians a sense that “all politicians are bumbling idiots”. Respect begets respect, and if a politician doesn’t derserve respect, voters tend to reject the politician. Inappropriate comedy may create a sense of disrespect where it is not deserved, though. Food for thought.
Polls are strange animals, too. Media loves polls like bees love honey. I wonder if, in some areas, they creates a sense of “my candidate is going to win by a landslide, so I am just going to stay home”, or “why should I bother voting, my candidate has no hope of even getting close.” It would be interesting to see if voter turnout was at all higher in ridings where polls just prior to election day showed two candidates running neck and neck.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Hey Brian awesome site!!
I belive to get a higher turn out we need change!! We need politicians who are passionate about what their party stands for and the pressing issues of the day..we need someone who will motivate people to make change and someone who cares about canadian citizens and the plight of the average family not just big corporations. Politicians today only care about themselves and how they can generate a profit for themselves.