Election Day minus 34 - Apathy and Choice

Day 4 - Still cold out, and the promises are flying thick and fast. So I recalled a line from William Gairdner's new book The Trouble with Canada.......Still : "No government can confer a benefit upon one person or group without penalizing another."

I must be watching the CBC too much, yesterday I thought they actually asked the right question but came up with the wrong answer. The question: What causes voter apathy? They did street interviews and got good answers, like: "I'd vote if I thought it would make a difference."
Exactly right, I thought while watching. People do vote if they think there is an issue, as happened in 1988 - the "free trade" election.

Year	1988	1993	1997	2000	2004	2006
Voter Turnout Rates*	75.3%	69.6%	67.0%	61.2%	60.5%	64.7%

*http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/voter-turnout-canada

In 2008 the turnout was just 59.1%, the lowest EVER.  You don't need to be a statistician to see the steady decline since 1988. Why bother voting if you don't think it will make a difference? By that I mean, does it matter to you if the guy that beats on you is wearing a blue hat, a red hat, an orange hat or a green hat? You are still being beaten! They are ALL the same, no wonder people are apathetic, I would be too, if I wasn't running.
Unfortunately the reporter doing the piece did not say that, he came up with some other poor excuse, but good try.
Here is a more complete list of voter turnout - as government got bigger turnout got smaller, in general.

Voter turnout since 1958:

• March 31, 1958: 79.4%

• June 18, 1962: 79%

• April 8, 1963: 79.2%

• Nov. 8 1965: 74.8%

• June 25, 1968: 75.7%

• Oct. 30, 1972: 76.7%

• July 8, 1974: 71%

• May 22, 1979: 75.7%

• Feb. 18, 1980: 69.3%

• Sept. 4, 1984: 75.3%

• Nov. 21, 1988: 75.3%

• Oct. 26, 1993: 69.64%

• June 2, 1997: 67%

• Nov. 27, 2000: 61.25%

• June 28, 2004: 60.9%

• Jan. 23, 2006: 64.7%

• Oct. 14, 2008: 59.1%

(Source: Elections Canada)