If hockey is the national sport of Canada, then surely grousing about the state of political affairs comes a close second. The image of growing old in Florida, wearing high-waisted pants and complaining about politics must surely be linked to the number of Snow Birds, because Canadians love to hate their politicians. We have an electorate culture that leans heavily on voting a party OUT of government rather than selecting the party that most closely aligns with our moral and fiscal values. If the Canadian electorate were the jilted lover we would end every encounter with a cute bunny in a pot of boiling water. Given our passion for the subject one would believe that Canadians vote in rabid fashion - literally queueing out the door of every voting station in the land.
Yet following the analogy of the jilted lover, we act betrayed while knowing full well we are just as much to blame for the state of affairs in our relationship as the politicians themselves. The fact is the last two Canadian Federal elections were met with the flaccid response of a Viagra starved lover. As a population we were responsible for the third and absolute lowest voter turn-out since the birth of the nation!
From this we can deduce that as a group we love to complain - as much as we love to do as little as possible to rectify the situation. We are the disgruntled employee holding the red stapler and mumbling about burning the office down while leaving the people at the levers of control safe from the slings and arrows.
Imagine yourself as a Canadian Federal politician. You need to contest your position once every four years, and if you are successful for two successive terms you are guaranteeing yourself one of the most handsome severance packages in the land. The qualifications to become a candidate are scant aside from requiring a good amount of financial backing. Retail job openings have more stringent qualifications. But then consider your employer - the average Canadian citizen. Given the citizenry's penchant for passive aggressive complaining, you may hear from a slight percentage of your constituents over your four year term. Those who do contact you will most will more than likely wish to garner favour from having supported you during the election. Still it would be safe to assume single-digit percentages in this regard.
Every four years you simply need to convince the majority of registered voters in your district to vote for you. Averaging the last two voter turnout results this means that a candidate needs somewhere near 31% of their district's Voters. If a candidate belongs to a major party they can easily count on party-line voter support of at least half that number, so now we are talking about requiring a platform that speaks to 15% of the population, regardless the amount of complaining from the general public.
Aren't Canadians more deserving than platforms that only speak to less than quarter of the population? Do politicians who spend our money on a daily basis deserve carte blanche with this nation's credit rating? Canadians are wearing the costume of the jilted lover too well because we act like our relationship isn't within our control. We speak about our political climate not as a future, but as a foregone conclusion.
The time has come for Canadians to stop using the media as our private investigator, telling us how our trusted partner has been cheating on us with every corporate partner around and spending our money like its going out of fashion. Voting is not an activity for nights when there is nothing on TV. Much like any successful relationship it requires hard work, consideration and a dose of self-examination. We can be our own Tony Robbins if we want, but one thing is certain - if we simply like to complain then you can rest assured the fate of our nation will indeed be a fait accompli.
