Why vote? And why now? Good questions

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2019 (2605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has become the routine, in recent years, for this space to be used on election day eve to encourage readers, and indeed all citizens who have reached the age of majority, to “Go vote!”

In longer-ago times, newspapering tradition hereabouts held that the deep thinkers in charge of editorial pages would endorse a particular candidate or party. That convention has been laid to rest at this paper, but the “Go vote!” directive has remained a staple of election-cycle editorializing.

The response from many who read it, no doubt, has been, “Why?” Whether because of general lack of interest, growing disillusionment with the behaviour of politicians and the negativity of their campaigns, or perhaps just a lingering malaise based on the perception that none of it matters, so why bother taking part, questions about voting and rationales for opting out of elections seem to inspire lower voter turnouts with each election campaign.

But as Manitobans — at least, those who didn’t take advantage of early voting opportunities — have the opportunity to head to the polls on Tuesday, the “Why?” question carries a bit more heft this time around. Along with the inevitable “Why should I vote?” rumination that guides each individual’s choice, there’s also the question of “Why in the heck are we having this election NOW?”

Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister, just three years into his first term as premier, decided that the summer of 2019 was the right time for a provincial election campaign, in defiance of Manitoba’s fixed-date election law and with the full knowledge that Manitobans cherish their too-short summers and are already saddled with the burden of a federal election campaign as soon as the leaves start to fall.

To date, Mr. Pallister has not offered a satisfactory explanation for his flouting of the fixed-date legislation his party supported when it was passed in 2008 by the NDP government of then-premier Gary Doer.

Musings about how Manitobans wouldn’t want their celebration, in 2020, of the province’s 150th birthday interrupted by an election campaign were such pifflesome nonsense that they barely merited a moment’s listening; rather, this most inconvenient and awkwardly timed election is most surely happening because the premier saw political advantage in its 12-months-premature scheduling.

If Manitoba’s fixed-date election law is really, as Free Press op-ed contributor Paul G. Thomas described, nothing more than “an emerging constitutional convention” that in no way binds a particular premier to a prescribed “fixed” election date, perhaps it’s time to rethink the legislation.

For guidance, one might look to the chaos enveloping Britain’s parliament — the system of governance which we colonials inherited — to see how beleaguered Brexit-focused Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s demand for a snap vote was turned aside because he was unable to achieve a two-thirds majority of votes in the House that would have allowed him to call for an election.

Even in the madness into which the Mother Parliament has descended, there’s a glimmer of common sense about who can call an election, and how, and when.

That’s something to think about on the Manitoba election day almost nobody wanted.

Of course, democracy is always better served when citizens make the carefully considered choice to cast an informed vote in an election. But as we each decide how, or whether, to vote, it’s worth taking a moment to ponder why we’re being forced to make such a choice in the first place.