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Letter: I'm going on strike from voting. This is why

Editor: This federal election, I’ve decided to go on strike from voting. And since strikes are generally accompanied by some kind of publicity, I feel obliged to report why. First of all, I know who’s going to get elected as MP for our riding.
voting

Editor:

This federal election, I’ve decided to go on strike from voting. And since strikes are generally accompanied by some kind of publicity, I feel obliged to report why. 

First of all, I know who’s going to get elected as MP for our riding. He’s likeable and I rarely disagree with what he has to say. But he’s going to win and that makes voting for him, or voting for someone else, a useless gesture. 

Such is our electoral system. Thanks for nothing, Justin “we are committed to ensuring the 2015 election will be the last federal election using first-past-the-post” Trudeau.

But even if I did have a choice, I’d find little incentive to vote for candidates of the main contending parties. The Conservatives are what you would call, if speaking accurately, “socially regressive.” Come hell (forest fires) or high water (rising sea levels), they’ll defend Canadians’ weird obsession with sucking oil out of rocks and driving the world’s most gas-guzzling cars. 

The same goes for the Liberals, who, while not exactly “regressive” on social policy, will tell you polluting the environment is compatible with protecting it. 

If the NDP ever came to power, they’d give us a made-in-Canada cultural revolution led by a phalanx of no-platformers. In other words, they’d be like the Liberals on a PCP binge. The initials for People’s Party of Canada are, incidentally, an anagram for PCP, and the Greens want us to think the planet will heal itself if we all drive electric cars, which is a complete fiction.

I don’t take the decision not to vote lightly. I have two young children, am worried about the kind of world they will inherit, and want to see meaningful change. I know that if immediate and dramatic action is not taken, our planet will be significantly more degraded than it is now. 

None of the major political parties, however, are willing to speak plainly about the lifestyle changes that would be needed to turn things around. And even if one of them did, our electoral system would more or less discount my support. Therefore, I can only conclude that voting in this election would be a complete waste of time.

Patrick Parkes, New Westminster