The perils of democracy

Canada went to the polls yesterday (June 28th) to elect its next federal government. Latest results show the incumbent Liberals turning in a better-than-expected performance, and clinging to a minority government. The next few months promise to be interesting as they broker their way to power.

As a crusading journalist who fights for the rights of the little people, democracy is a pretty critical thing to me. We are privileged to be able to democratically elect our government - especially when we don't need to look far for examples of countries whose citizens so clearly lack those - and many other - rights.

Indeed, publishing this blog - trivial as it may seem - could land all too many of our fellow citizens of Earth in a state-funded, earth-floored prison cell.

So it was important to involve the kids in the process. So when I got home from the office, we loaded up the stroller and headed over to the polling station near our house. Our three-year-old, Noah, mis-heard the word "vote" and wanted to know where the boat was. He perked up when he and Dahlia got to help me stuff the ballot into the ballot box. Then he and his sister played the piano in the hall on the way out. Such fun!

Democracy starts young. They have no idea how lucky they are that it's all so easy for us.

Tune into this week's London Free Press column (updated Wed. June 30) for more on why this stuff really does matter. And if you didn't bother to vote this time out, you now have a bit more time to think about why you're such a slack-jawed troglodyte.

Carmi Z.

BTW, can you guess where that last cultural reference comes from?