In one of my previous blogs I made a plea for the people of Ontario to go vote in the election of October 6th. To my great disappointment, we reached a new low in voter turnout with a little more than 49% of the people actually caring enough to exercise their right. Now, I understand that my blog is only read by a VERY, VERY small portion of the Ontario electorate…hopefully some day that number will be large enough to have some impact on voter turnout but at this point it certainly does not. However, I was far from the only individual, blog-writer, media personality and/or public figure to urge the people of Ontario to care enough to vote and we still got the smallest voter turnout in Ontario history.
The optimist, and the Liberal Party of Ontario, would have you believe that the low voter turnout was due to the fact that people were satisfied with the current government and the direction of our province. The pessimist would have you believe that the low turnout was the result of people really not believing that there is a suitable alternative to the current government. Sadly, I believe that the problem is much larger than that. I believe that the people of Ontario, and the people in many other areas of Canada have developed a sense of apathy towards politics and it will be a difficult trend to reverse.
I will not pretend for one minute that I have a grand solution to this problem but I can tell you that it is important that the federal and provincial governments as well as all political parties in our country work together to identify strategies that will motivate the electorate into playing their important role in our democracy. This is not an Elections Ontario or an Elections Canada problem, it is a Canadian problem. It needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed by the people most impacted by voter turnouts, politicians and political parties from throughout the country.
In certain countries, such as Australia, voting is mandatory and people are fined if they do not vote. Ironically, if there was ever a referendum in Canada that asked if voting should be mandatory, the voter turnout would likely be extremely high to vote en masse against the movement. So, the trick is not forcing people to vote, it is making them care enough to vote. This is the challenge that I hope our political leaders will start taking more seriously while addressing said problem in a pro-active manner! Doubt it…but a guy can hope!
A few random thoughts:
· I was intrigued by the mass reaction when Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, passed away last week. At its peak there were 6,049 posts per second mentioning his death on Twitter the night he passed away. That’s right, 6,049 posts “PER SECOND”! Although it is easy to exaggerate while providing tributes when someone passes, I think it is fair to say that he was one of THE most important innovators of my generation.
· When I listen to American politicians on TV, I get the feeling that if either the Republicans or the Democrats came up with an infallible plan to end child hunger in their country, the other party would figure out a way to oppose it.
· I’m getting increasingly annoyed by the number of companies offering social media workshops, seminars or consulting services only to visit their twitter feeds and realizing that they’ve only sent 40 Tweets and are being followed by a grand number of 18 followers. How the heck are they supposed to provide people and businesses with “insider tricks” and strategies on how to utilize social media to generate more business when you don’t even do it successfully themselves?!
· Call me a capitalist but when it comes to labour disputes in professional sports, I will always side with the owners. If someone is willing to pay you millions to play a sport…shut up and play! If you “must” go on strike, don’t insult the people who pay to see you play by telling us through the media that you are simply trying to “feed your family”.
· Tiger Woods is an idiot for what he did to his family and if I had a daughter I would not let her anywhere near him. However, it is becoming increasingly clear just how important he is to the success of golf as a professional sport. When Tiger was at his best and in contention at just about every Major Championship even casual sports fans watched. These days, when he is often out of contention by the weekend, even hard core golf fans stop watching.
· Saw Cindy Crawford being interviewed on TV the other day and she hasn’t changed a bit since we dated back in the late 80’s!
· I’ve always been a big Don Cherry fan but I think it’s time to say goodbye Grapes!
· Every year on Thanksgiving weekend I think of the following clip…a classic from one of my favourite sitcoms growing up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST01bZJPuE0
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