I voted today. I took advantage of the advance polls just so I could avoid lines on May 2. To me, this election doesn’t matter. Years ago I would have written a few posts about my thoughts on the upcoming federal election. I would comment on the different parties platforms and what my feelings on them were. I never considered politics my strong suit but I felt I had a voice.
With the May 2011 election coming up I just don’t have the same passion I did before. Harper will win, a few seat numbers will change and the country will be in the same position it was in before this election was called. I took the CBC Vote Compass to make sure I knew where I stood, and with some odd similarities to the Bloc Québécois party my allegiance is where I thought it was.
I voted for my parties candidate, but driving around Sherwood Park you wouldn’t know they existed. Based on signage the popular choices are:
1) Independent
2) Liberal
3) Conservative
4) Garage Sale
5) Green Party
The NDP candidate hasn’t been bothered to promote themselves in the County of Strathcona. Signage aside, they failed to show up at a debate a few weeks ago that the other party members attended. For all intents and purposes, the NDP candidate is non existent and I’m disappointed in their actions. Not only is this election a waste of time my party can’t even be bothered to show that they care or want to represent us, which just makes a bad situation worse.
All the same, I voted, my voice will be counted and the day after the election I’ll read how it all went down and quietly judge things I have little knowledge about and have even less control over.
Ah Sherwood Park. The only place in Canada where your vote is more futile than Calgary.
At least here we voted in Nenshi, which means things could potentially go horribly sideways for the Conservatives.
Ugh, that’s not good. The CBC Vote Compass had a most agree/least agree results on questions and Edmonton-Sherwood Park appeared on a question I was strongly opposed to and this town strongly agreed on. It feels so futile to vote but I guess that’s part of the problem with low voter turn out.
The 2008 election had a pretty big majority for Conservatives in Calgary so if things weren’t such a landslide in 2011 I’d consider that a success.
E: Found the question and article I referenced in my first paragraph. The question was “All Canadian troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan immediately” and Edmonton-Sherwood Park was one of the strongest regions to “Strongly Disagree” on. The rest of the strongly oppose/agree map can be found here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/features/votecompass/map/.