By Michael Nickerson
Elections are tiresome things, aren’t they? Weeks of promises, platitudes and no end of photo ops, lovingly reported by the media coast to coast. It’s a sad state of affairs that much of the country has become jaded to our electoral process, holding their noses and casting a ballot, hoping the new pig at the helm will smell a bit better than the last. Out with the old leader, in with the new, and let the whole depressing process go round again.
A rather dismal take on things don’t cha think? Yet I’m willing to bet if you’re either a veteran or active service member then that gets pretty close to the mark, for very good reasons. Time and again Canada’s military and its veterans have been used by every major party like a piece of arm candy to garner votes and praise, always to be left in the gutter once the cameras stop clicking.
So what to do? Well to paraphrase a quote famously attributed to Albert Einstein, it’s insane to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. So if you’re thinking of voting for any of the five major federal parties (and no, Maxime Bernier, that doesn’t include yours) on the basis that they’re actually looking out for you, well stop that right now, because that’s just insane (see above).
Unfortunately the options get pretty slim after that. In theory one possibility for that vote of yours is the Veterans Coalition Party of Canada, which you’d think is perfect for anyone who has ever worn a uniform. And God love ‘em, their heart is in the right place. Problem is, it’s not just a one issue protest party whose vote tally would really send a message, but one that has developed a platform full of funding and policy contradictions far beyond its original purpose. Sadly a vote for the VCP is not so much one of protest, but stupidity.
As any voter will (or should) know (and new ones pay attention here), a federal election ballot does not provide a check box for “none of the above,” “you must be kidding,” “I’d rather choke on a hockey puck before voting for this lot” or similar such options. The only way to lodge a protest vote at all is to spoil it, via writing your name, checking all the boxes, or just leaving it blank. Such ballots are “rejected” and tallied, though no reason given as to why.
Thus spoiling a ballot is only slightly better than sitting at home and shooting your television on election night. Unless of course you let people know that you did it and why. Then we have a whole different ball game that would make Einstein proud!
Now before we start having fun, I should make it clear that it is illegal to take a picture of any ballot, spoiled or otherwise, and it’s also a definite legal no no to publish such a picture. So don’t do that (my lawyer has spoken).
It is not illegal however to announce to the world in any way, shape or form how you voted and why once you leave a polling station. You can say it on Facebook, Twitter, and all sorts of social media options I’m too old to even know about. And you can write letters to the editor of your local paper, even a national paper, and say why you’ve had enough of the status quo. Active service members under a do-not-talk-to-media dictum can write in as anonymous. The key is to finally give voice to that vote, and substance to the “rejected” tally.
If newspapers, television outlets and social media get inundated with stories of protest votes, the concerns of military members and veterans alike might finally be noticed. Yet it’s going to take a real change in voting behaviour that I suspect does not come easily to those who work and have worked for that very freedom. But spoiling that ballot may be the only way to get some much deserved attention.
