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Democracy is a bad joke told by an inbred Brantford hick.
I didn't used to feel this way, not really, but lately things just have come to a head between me and that democracy fellow. The system, perhaps, may have it's redeeming qualities, especially in Canada. However, the process to me just seems... ridiculous.
In earlier times, you had a wealth of parties to choose from. You'd have your NDP, your Liberals, your PC's, PQ's, whatever. But now... now when you get down to it, there's really just two. You have your Alliance, with Stockwell Day, and you've got your Liberals, with Jean Chretien. It's become as bad as the American system with their Republicans and Democrats. What the hell's the difference there anymore, really?
The soon-to-be two party system isn't all that gets to me. The whole voting process kind of sickens me. Does it really make sense than everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote? Is everyone over that age competent enough to distinguish the difference between candidates (when there is one) and vote for the lesser of the evils? No. You take one stroll around Brantford, and that answer will hit you in the face like a frozen trout.
So you've got masses of near-retarded people dropping their votes at random when they shouldn't even be allowed to drive a car, much less have any of the 5 kids they may have by the age of 25. So we want trash who can't manage to work birth control devices voting for the next leader of a country? Come on now.
And then... then you have the other mass of people. The mass that doesn't vote at all. Nationwide in the last federal election in 1997, the voter turnout rate was 67%. That left an entire third of people who did not cast their ballot in any way shape or form. Wow. And the numbers ranged from 55.2% turnout in Newfoundland to 73.4% in New Brunswick, and then you can add another small number, 1.4% of all the ballots being taken in getting rejected for being filled in improperly or whatever else.
Another problem with voting in Canada is specialized due to location. There are over 7 million registered voters in Ontario. That's more than all the maritimes combined. Now of course, only 4.5 million of them turned out to vote last time, but weighing that many votes against provinces with populations that fall short of even a million people (that's 7 provinces/territories), it's pretty st-st-staggering. What Ontario and Quebec want, they get, basically, and it's very unfair to other provinces and territories.
So what have we learned today? One day soon, we'll be more like the Americans than we ever wanted to be. A two party system is so close to a one party system that there's almost no difference, as long as you meet the challenge of living to be 19 years old, you too can 'shape the future' with one of these two parties... even if you're a gap toothed child molesting imbecile. For some reason, a third of the eligible population never bothers to vote. And finally, Canada's centralized population has the power to casually mow down any vote, even a unified one, from Newfoundland, PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan... hell, basically anywhere other than BC or Quebec, and *maybe* Alberta.
As that old DK album says, it probably is Bedtime For Democracy.
Now I'm off to go look at some porn.
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