Campaign Trail 2011: How to Vote for YOU

Politics for Joe 24

By: Hubert O'Hearn

For: Lake Superior News

We will absolutely be completing the series on the party platforms. The feedback I've had has been both positive and angrily negative from all sides so therefore we're doing something right. But for now, I want to share with you some thoughts on how to vote.

No, I don't mean that in a candidate or party-specific way. That I think is the trap that Big Media springs on the average voter. The concentration on large, macro patterns such as national or provincial polling; along with large, macro topics such as the relative popularity of the party leaders takes the great national argument away from what its rightful subject. You.

The model voter

Some rather toxic combination of schools, churches and correct parenting drive into us the notion that it is always wrong to be selfish. Have you ever seen the last piece of pie get tossed into the bin because no one in the family wanted to appear so selfish as to take and eat that last wedge of fruit-filled pastry? I swear we as a nation waste tonnes of food per year because we don't want to be appear like greedy little piggies.

Politics and elections are the absolute perfect times to stand up and loudly say, 'What's in it pour moi?' Quebec mastered the art decades ago in the Duplessis era. Everyone from Hull to the Gaspé knew that Le Chiffre was calling a provincial election because the streets and highways smelled of hot, fresh asphalt as the roads were literally paved for another victory. To this day, the Rest of Canada (ROC) tends to get huffy and annoyed with Quebec's quote/enquote 'whining' to get rewards like aerospace contracts, new bridges, hockey rinks, etc. etc. etc. Personally I think it's brilliant on Quebec's part and the ROC should learn from the Bloc.

Here's the theory in a nutshell. If each and every one of us precisely voted our own narrow and selfish interests we should end up with a balanced Parliament that follows the priorities laid out by the electorate. Emphasis on should. I will point out and comment on the flaw in the theory later.

I ask you to take a look at yourself, and/or your own family if you have been so lucky as to have one in your home. What is the one thing that government could possibly do for you that would make your life a little better, a little happier? I urge you not to just reply, 'More money!' as money is a means to an end, not an end to itself regardless of what monetarist Tories will tell you.

(Well you didn't expect me to start getting objective, now did you?)

But if it's more money, it's more money. This is your Letter to Santa, not mine. My priority is Home Care. I have an 85 year old mother living upstairs for whom I get absolutely no help in terms of subsidy or placement in a safer setting. If we ever have a fire - and we did have a house fire four years ago - she will die. Simple as that. Equally, I have a 45 year old beautiful common law wife who is not living in our house because she suffered a brain aneurysm. There are no Neuro-psychologists in Northwestern Ontario (think Oliver Saks) and this is inhibiting her recovery so that she still requires 24 hour supervision. I cannot give that because I have to work, so she must live with her parents in Atikokan, two hours' drive away.

I tell you this personal story because it directly impacts my vote. Which party, which platform, addresses my needs? Both the NDP and Liberals have strong Health Care and Home Care platform planks. So my choice narrows to those two.

Then, what is second on my Santa List? I work at a hotel, therefore it is in my selfish interest to see lots of tourists come to Thunder Bay. Lots of tourists means filled hotel rooms, means profits means a wage increase and more pension money when our next contract comes up. Which platform will do the most for tourism? The Liberals are committed to high-speed rail. Yes, it will first be in the Windsor-Montreal corridor, but at least that's a start and it will likely mean more work for friends who work at teh Bombardier plant here. So, I guess Ken Boshcoff gets my vote.

Are you grasping how this works now? Another example: Let's say you are the parent of a Canadian soldier fighting in Afghanistan. If you want him or her brought home immediately - that's your top priority - you should vote for the NDP candidate in your riding. If you want him or her armed to the teeth, you should vote Tory. The Conservatives are the party most committed to spending at the Department of National Defence.

Essentially then, I am suggesting a three-part process:

1) Assess your priorities

2) Discover who addresses your priorities

3) Vote accordingly

This is why I am plowing through the platforms on your behalf because you have too much life going on to do it for yourself. If all 30,000 or so people who will actually vote in an average riding did just that, the pattern will reflect the riding's majority interests and that riding will elect a man or woman with a mandate to press for those interests.

The flaw - and there is one - is what of minority interests? In some ways all interests are minority interests. Somewhere between 3-7% of the population live with a disability. (The range is because of differing definitions.) There are lots of people who require Home Care, but never a majority. It is for this reason that the economic number that most affects voting is not unemployment, but inflation. Unemployment affects the unemployed. paying more for gas, chicken and toilet paper affects everyone.

This is the big shiny argument for proportional representation (PR). Narrow, minority interests would be represented by narrow, minority interest parties who would in turn build Parliamentary coalitions and work for one another when and where their policy interests matched.

What I've never liked about PR is that I know how the Big Parties will abuse it. They too will receive a certain number of PR seats, so there will actually be Liberal and NDP members in Alberta and so forth. These PR seats are where the Big Parties will place their Star Candidates, so they don't have to get all mucky and actually campaign and get your Uncle Lou his passport on time. And they will wind up leading the party, being the Cabinet members and future leaders; which in turn makes the riding-elected Member of Parliament even less important than s/he is now.

Thanks for reading. More platform columns this week. Please share, tweet and comment. Be seeing you.