When I think of the next federal election, I get a feeling of hopelessness. I feel like we’re screwed no matter what.
Without any hope of electoral reform, I wonder if we can instead use the tools we have better.
Independents running always seems like a long shot. The cards are stacked against them. But would it be possible to make it easier for them?
One of my thoughts would be to use technology. Create a platform for people to engage with their local riding, stripped of obvious party association. And not pay-to-play for candidates.
Does an idea like that have merit? Do you have any other ideas?
I think it is hard. All their platforms look the same, it’s difficult to find their voting records. Even their promises can’t be trusted.
And since the candidates you hear the most about tend to be the leaders there’s a bias to vote for a party, rather than your representative.
Beyond that issues are often things I’m not particularly knowledgeable about, so I don’t know say how bad bringing in pay for healthcare would be for the public system (you’ve got to read studies to know that shit).
In make believe land I think that only impacted and experts would have a say. So corporate interests wouldn’t get quite so much say, and distribution would be better. And farmers would get more say on ag related issues and technical people would get more say on things like DRM… But really that also probably just turn to shit.
I think it is hard. All their platforms look the same, it’s difficult to find their voting records. Even their promises can’t be trusted.
Here’s the key to democratic participation: you have to keep paying attention to politics. Even if voting records were easy to find, it’s SUPER hard to form an opinion because you’d need to recover all the context and discussions during the voting times. Sometimes good politicians will vote against decent laws due to practicalities that you’ll miss if you just glance at a table.
So it is hard to filter for candidates who “do good for regular Canadians”, not because it’s hard to find information, but because most people are trying to cram the elections, and you really can’t. If you’re not willing to spend that energy keeping up with politics, find someone you trust that do and just ask that person for a detailed opinion.
