Rev up your democratic engines, people of Bonnyville (and surrounding area), it's nearly time to vote.
As the election races towards the finish line and voters dust off their voter card and proof of ID, it's time for those of us who over think things to have a few last minute bouts of indecision, anxiety, and despair.
Have we judged our candidates correctly? Should we vote according to our conscience, or ditch that and vote strategically instead? Will our friends and family judge us if we don't vote according to their demands? What if we vote for the candidate we've chosen and somehow it leads to an autocratic government where one man or woman takes over Parliament, lies, cheats, steals, funnels money into strange places and then neglects to mention it to Parliament, attempts to take over the media and ensure that everything ever published is approved and specially doctored to represent a particular agenda? Oh. Right. That has already happened.
But what if something does change? What happens if there is a tremendous upset and the NDP party surges ahead and takes power? Would Jack Layton even know what to do with it? Would it mean the end of life as we know it? Or the beginning of something new, where everybody can afford to feed their children healthy, organic food, and medication is free, and gas prices are stabilized, and, wonder of wonders, credit card interest rates are no longer something lurking, toxic and unavoidable, the gremlin in every financially-inept Canadian's pocketbook?
The pressure is crushing. What if we choose incorrectly? What if we give Harper another shot and he runs off after funneling all the treasure from Parliament into a Swiss bank account? Could we deal with Ignatieff's 'I Told You Sos'? Or what if Harper is right, we give him a minority government again, and Ignatieff and his minions rise up in an epic and awful coalition that threatens the very foundations of democracy, somehow? I bet he'd raise credit card interest rates, just out of spite.
Spiderman had it right. With great power comes great responsibility. In some countries even now, people are fighting and dying for the right to vote. In Canada, we've already got it. Democracy is a right we take for granted, and with it comes the power to change our country, to change our world.
With such a staggering amount of pressure on our shoulders, it's little wonder that most of us will choose not to vote.
The potential for drastic change lies within us all, as we clutch our voter registration cards and solemnly march down to the polling station. We can change the world. Or at least, our little Canadian corner of it.
All we've got to do is vote.
