On the Occasion of the Government's Fall

From the mailbox today:

I had just got my new GMC Yukon Denali, and had returned to the dealer the next day complaining that I couldn't figure out how to work the radio. The salesman explained that the radio is voice activated. "Watch this!" he said. "Nelson!" The radio replied "Ricky or Willie?" "Willie!"he continued, and immediately "On The Road Again" came from the speakers.
I'm pretty impressed with this radio. If I say Beatles I get one of their classics; if I say Green Day, I get a rousing rendition of one of their hits. One day a couple ran a red light and nearly smashed my new Denali, but I swerved in time to avoid them. "ASSHOLE! I yelled". Immediately I heard "O Canada started to play, sung byPAUL MARTIN, backed up by BELINDA STRONACH, with JEAN CHRETIEN on guitar,ANN MACLELLAN on drums and DAVID DINGWALL playing the keyboard. The anthem was then followed followed by their version of TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN!!!!

The apathy among the Canadian electorate isn't suprising. It's disgusting.

"I don't want a winter election!"
Well, you got one. I know, it's terrible, isn't it? You've gotta go door to door through the winter gales, flying all over the country, delays at every turn...photo ops in the middle of blizzards...your toes will freeze!
What was that? You're not running, you just have to vote?
The horrors!

"Why bother, this election won't change anything!"

It's this attitude that makes me want to bang my head against the keyboard. Every time I hear this little gem, I ask the speaker to write down his or her projected finish, by number of seats, for each of the four major parties. Nobody's taken me up on that, yet. I wonder why. Could it be that they don't even know how many seats there are in the House?
The point of elections is to effect change...or not, if you're happy with the government you have. And folks, if you're happy with the last twelve years, nothing I say will register with you, so go ahead and tune me out.
Look. The polls suggest another minority government...that much is true. But polls before the campaign even starts (oh, wait a second, how many billions of dollars in promises have the Libranos come out with in the past two weeks? Twenty-eight gazillion, right? Obviously the campaign HAS started...I just missed it.) Anyway, this early, polls are a fool's game.
But, you say, the Bloc will carry Quebec and thus make a majority even more difficult to attain?
Well, now, that's an intelligent assertion, if I do say so myself. So what are you going to do about it?

I'm going to do you a favour here. Everybody's bitching about a Christmas election (the latest bet is January 23, which is nowhere near Christmas, but)...I'll tell you what. Before your life gets too busy, check out the party websites below. I'll repeat this bit in the New Year.

You could vote Liberal. I throw this option out merely to cover all my bases. How their own mothers vote for them I have no clue, but you could, I suppose. Their website is www.liberal.ca
If you hate the corruption but like the direction the government generally takes, you could vote NDP. There's nothing wrong with a vote for Jack Layton's party. It's the party of Ed Broadbent, a man with more integrity in his pinky finger than Paul Martin had in his entire caucus. Check out the NDP site: www.ndp.ca
You could vote Green. They have some interesting ideas and deserve a much higher profile than they get...and the only way they'll get what they deserve is with more votes. Their site is www.greenparty.ca
Or you could be one of many Canadians toying with the thought of voting for Stephen Harper.
The Liberals will, of course, trot out the boogeyman every chance they get this campaign, just as they have in the last four. Don't let them...not without deciding for yourself. Check out www.conservative.ca to see how many of the Liberal accusations are based on the Conservative platform.

No matter what, vote, okay? I'm serious. There are too many places in the world where you can't: we take our franchise for granted.