Why I'm voting outside the box this election
I have been politically active as soon as I could vote. I’ve voted in every municipal, provincial and federal election, sometimes blithely, sometimes passionately, sometimes strategically and sometimes with my heart. I’ve mostly voted for so-called progressive parties like the Liberals, NDP or Greens, though this past federal election I checked the box for the People’s Party of Canada since I was voting strictly single issue (on my opposition to vaccine mandates). I’ve never been wedded to any particular political tribe, but I’ve always felt that it was my duty to vote. If I didn’t participate in our democracy, why should I deserve to have any say in it?
My faith in our political parties to make the changes I want in society has been steadily declining, so in 2018 I ran for mayor of Toronto. That experience was eye-opening, as I saw from the inside just how entrenched power is. It is almost impossible for someone without well established political connections or a tremendous amount of money/fame to be elected to a position of significant influence (eg, arbitrarily defined by me as one making decisions on behalf of thousands or millions of people). This holds true on the left as well as the right. If you have any doubt, don’t take my word for it, just take a look at the background of any powerful politician. This doesn’t have to mean corruption, or that people with connections are bad people, but it does mean that power will naturally rest in the hands of those who already have it.
I could do a whole essay about the other barriers I saw for those who want to hold elected positions of influence, but this piece isn’t about those other barriers. It’s why I’m refusing, at least this election, to legitimize what is to me, a fatally flawed - or at least severely injured - voting system.
To begin with, our first past post the voting system is a rigged game that wastes our votes. People like Dave Meslin have worked for years (and continue to work) to get our governments to switch to a better one, like ranked voting. Such efforts have consistently failed because those who must vote to implement them fear they will lose their seats if a change to the voting system is made. Even where lobbying efforts finally did succeed - like London - the provincial government stepped in to ban ranked voting to make sure such reforms weren’t possible.
Entrenched power and keeping outsiders out means that there will be a certain amount of uniformity of thought when it comes to ideas. In my own mayoral campaign, I was repeatedly told to be realistic, to move slowly, to go off on tangents rather than directly making or advocating the change in the hopes that one day I’ll be able to come back to my real goal. Politicians who were in positions of power told me they could not propose different ideas because they’d be sure to be shot down or lose their seat in the next election. Nonprofits and social activists who call loudly in the streets for significant social change, were afraid of jeopardizing their funding by outwardly supporting individuals (myself or others) who wished to implement it, and the media only covered candidates who they deemed had a realistic chance of winning. This means that those with new ideas are often shut out from the democratic process. How can people vote for new solutions if they don’t even know the candidates proposing them are on the ballot?
The party system in the upcoming provincial as well as federal election also means that there is little opportunity for anyone other than the party leaders and their close associates to move ahead with policy changes. If anyone wishes to have a seat in power, they must join a party and agree to abide by their rules and get “whipped” into voting the right way. The Greens are a slight exception to this, as individuals are allowed free votes, however in their attempt to get a foothold the Greens have had to keep their proposals within the limits of what is seen as acceptable changes and their policy platforms suffer as a result. Without a party it is possible to run both provincially and federally, but the likelihood of success as an independent is poor - those who are independents have generally started out as an MP or MPP with a particular party, then been kicked out or have chosen to leave the party, but with enough popular support (and name recognition) from within their riding to maintain their seat.
Our leaders and established media use our voting system as a rationalization for the government decisions they make. If they are given power “by the people”, they feel justified to pass (eg the Liberal/NDP Emergency Power Act) - or fail to pass (Trudeau’s broken promise of voting reform) - whatever legislation they want, because they consider elections a mandate to move forward on their own policy goals.
This provincial election, I see before me a menu of choices that are all unappealing. The parties who would oppose the Conservative’s Highway 413 (something I think is a huge waste of money and a terrible use of land) support vaccine mandates, mask mandates and lockdowns as reasonable public health measures (which you’ve heard from my past essays that I strongly oppose). The parties that oppose those mandates support continued or even expanded exploitation of extraction-based economic activity, while I believe in regenerative activities (why not mine garbage dumps instead of pristine watersheds? Or pay people to plant trees rather than cut them down?).
Sometimes when I’m contemplating taking a particular action, I ask myself what would happen if everyone did what I did. If, this election, everyone declined their ballot (officially declined that is - which is markedly different than just spoiling or not showing up), would things get worse? I don’t know, but I suspect not. I think it would require us all to take a pause and say, why are people so disenfranchised? What is not working for us all? It would give our current leaders a chance to ask themselves, do I want to know what the people really want? And if they don’t and choose to continue governing without the support of the people, the rest of us could see our democracy for what it is - a system where decisions are made by others for us, not with us.
I’ve heard it said that voting is like public transit. You choose the bus that will get you closest to your destination instead of wishing there was a better one that took you right to your doorstep. From my vantage point, we’re all on the same bus, and it’s headed for a cliff. The parties are vying for control over the gas pedal, but none of them are proposing to change direction. How can I vote for anything that continues to take us down what I see as a crazy path?!
On June 2, I will be given a ballot full of what I think are terrible options, and if I choose one of them I’m saying I accept the range of choices. But the ballot box has nothing for me this election, so it’s time for me to think - and act - outside the box.