By Stephen Vance, Editor
I was just 16 when I volunteered to help out on an election campaign for the first time. From my teen years until my mid 30’s I volunteered to help out a campaign in every single federal and provincial election that came along, and a few municipal campaigns as well.
While it’s no secret that I lean to the left in my political thinking, that doesn’t mean that I married myself to one party over those 20 years of regular campaign work.
I’ve actually worked on campaigns for candidates from three different parties in two provinces – including (gasp) helping out on a campaign for a Progressive Conservative candidate who in that particular provincial election was, in my opinion, a better candidate than the one running for my party of preference in my riding at the time.
In the early years I mostly volunteered for the campaigns of Liberal candidates in my riding, and in later years I helped out on a couple Green Party campaigns, but at the core of my willingness to volunteer on any campaign was the belief that I was helping out the candidate I thought would serve my riding best.
I haven’t helped out on a federal or provincial election campaign in a decade, and I have no plans to do so in the coming years – and that says a lot given my passion for politics, and elections.
While I understand the need for political parties, in our democracy, I don’t believe that our party system is well served by our democratic framework as it currently stands, and I don’t believe that there is truly much appetite amongst the establishment parties for true electoral reform that could better represent the views and desires of Canadian electors.
So over the last decade I have enjoyed the freedom of setting aside party politics, and by disconnecting from the Canadian political machine, I’ve been able to cast my ballot in each election with the confidence that I hadn’t been blinded by a singular political platform or ideology, but rather my ballot has been cast for the candidate I felt would best serve my community.
Perhaps if we were to all vote this way, we would bring about our own electoral reform in a different way.
Party politics under our current framework is little more than a poorly moderated venue for attacking your opponents, childish name calling, and making dubious claims that are rarely truly tested by political media who prefer to relax on the fringes and instead report on the pretty colours of the party logos, or a candidate pissing in a cup.
Certainly I am bound within my own mind to certain long-held, or long-developed ideas and beliefs that help form the person I am, but ideas and beliefs don’t represent constituents, individuals do – though that has been hard to tell in recent years. As much as some people might assume that I support a particular candidate because of their party affiliation, I have truly become ‘party colour blind’ and often the party that the CBC Vote Compass tells me I should be supporting is actually the most disappointing party in my eyes.
I don’t need a candidate to agree with everything I believe, and I don’t want to believe everything a candidate does – if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, then only one of us is thinking after all – but I do want to vote for a candidate capable of critical thinking, and one who won’t be bullied by party leadership to vote against the interests of their constituents.
As I watch this particular federal election from the sidelines, I am struck by the different approaches being taken by each of the parties, and I am even more convinced that party politics is no longer for me. The Liberals and NDP are on an anybody but Harper warpath, while the Greens seem to have abandoned their grass roots feel in favour of an effort to become accepted as part of the Canadian political establishment. The conservatives meanwhile seem to have decided to have their candidates interact with, and say as little as possible to the very people they are asking to vote for them – perhaps they haven’t figured out the best way to defend their record, or perhaps their political strategists have forgotten that there are real people in this country who need representatives in parliament, not foot soldiers.
However you plan to vote in this coming election, consider disconnecting from the television commercials, forget party platforms, forget the party your Daddy, Grand-Daddy, and Great Grand-Daddy voted for without fail, and instead get to know the candidates. If they aren’t making appearances near you, seek them out, find out what they feel is important, ask if they will feel bound to vote with their party, or if they will put their riding and its constituents first.
No matter the party affiliation, if a candidate can’t look you in the eye and tell you that their constituents come before the party line, they don’t deserve your valuable vote.
