"I don't vote"

[miss.myra]

Hi! Guess what? The NPA is back.

For those of you who don't remember the 'no fun city' under mayor phillip owen's rule, be prepared for a lot more of that in the next four years because Vancouver's new mayor hails from the same party.

He won by about 4,000 votes and I was ashamed to know a lot of young people that didn't vote yesterday. I guess a lot of people don't really realize how much civic politics can affect their lives.

I realize it's nice for politicians to have a clue about financial smarts, seeing as how most of the time I lean right, but it's also not good to elect someone that has no sense of balance. Be forewarned, all this new mayor cares about is BUSINESS.

I miss Larry Campbell :(

[The Preacher]

Vancouver is chalk full of fun things to do.

[decypher]

How depressing.

[Hot Karl]

ditto, got a lot of buddies that didn't vote yesterday. fuckin idiots, because you know they'll be the first to bitch about something.

lots of good folk died so we can rock democracy. fuck rememberance day was like 10 days ago. where's the respect? kids today are all talk.

[narc]

At least we know that there will be alot more wheelchair accessible facilities on his top agenda

[Carrie]

I didn't know enough about the parties to vote this year, I'm actually quite disappointed in myself for not voting.

although I was pretty pissed off that Vision Vancouver called the house on Friday to make sure that we were voting for them, and then called again on Saturday to make sure we went to vote and voted for them

I asked politely for them to not call the house and bother us anymore.

[gnosis]

Unsettling how this province is leaning.

I just found out on friday that the province, in it's race to the bottom, rescinded the law that states an employer may not work an employee past 9 hours, without giving 1/2 hour, sit-down meal break.

Narc: QUIET! Not all the producers/PM's know about this yet!

Seems a lot of the unions in this province have been attempting to put the "9h-rule" into their constitutions to protect their members.

IA hasn't done so, as yet. Nor will they, seeing as they keep giving stuff away to the producers...

Frosty
(If ya don't vote, ya can't bitch!)

[Miss T]

^^^

I agree, if you don't vote, you have no rights to bitch about anything!

I personally got home at 7pm and made sure i drove up the road to go vote. :)

[mugwump]

issues were too vague.

id vote a libertarian party if we had one tho

[Miss T]

Originally Posted by mugwump

issues were too vague.

i don't think they were too vague, maybe you didn't pay attention to them or you live in a small town. i live in chilliwack where it isn't that big of a city (70,000 people) and the city website has many goals and objectives for 2005.

http://www.chilliwack.com/main/page.cfm?id=799

[narc]

Originally Posted by gnosis

Unsettling how this province is leaning.

I just found out on friday that the province, in it's race to the bottom, rescinded the law that states an employer may not work an employee past 9 hours, without giving 1/2 hour, sit-down meal break.

Narc: QUIET! Not all the producers/PM's know about this yet!

Seems a lot of the unions in this province have been attempting to put the "9h-rule" into their constitutions to protect their members.

IA hasn't done so, as yet. Nor will they, seeing as they keep giving stuff away to the producers...

Frosty
(If ya don't vote, ya can't bitch!)

sit down? hahahaha

[maztraz]

Originally Posted by gnosis

(If ya don't vote, ya can't bitch!)

Originally Posted by Miss T

^^^
if you don't vote, you have no rights to bitch about anything!

Please keep those kind of comments for your self...As it is not thoughfull at all

Not that I think taking a minimum of community responsabilities is not important, but there might be people that don't have the same point of view as you do, and saying that you have no rights to bitch cause you didn't pick one of those Misters or Misses to be our mayor, is pretty much the same as saying ''if you don't vote you have no community rights''

So I propose everysingle person that don't vote has to stay home since they have no rights, And the taxes that we pay are for our cats&dogs.... :)

[decypher]

They are saying now that maybe independant candidate James Green may have got some mistaken votes, taking away from Vision Vancouver candidate, Jim Green.

[ebbomega]

I have no proof of residence. my license still says Duncan and i'm still waiting on my first cellphone bill. I wasn't allowed to vote.

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by maztraz

Please keep those kind of comments for your self...As it is not thoughfull at all

dude, that is so ridiculous.

okay, you don't vote. who cares. but don't tell them to keep their comments to themselves, especially when they weren't offensive comments at all. that's the same as a vegetarian telling someone to be quiet because they heard them say they hate carrots. suck it up and move on.

[narc]

ohhhh CONSPIRACY within the mayoral race.

something about James Green and the NPA.

[Cosmos]

i'm fucking ecstatic about how the election went in abby
no more mary reeves as mayor
and thats excellent news.

[fable]

While I agree not voting could be looked at as being politically aloof, i dont prescribe to the notion that if you dont vote in this day and age, then you really should have anything to "bitch" about.

Perhaps, heads are understanding apparent hypocricies in our electorial systems? Or perhaps the fact that 200 000 or so eligble people not voting is systematic of larger problems such as an growing feeling/realization that members of government at any level are representing the needs and demands of the general populace less and less everyday?


I know a few people that didnt vote, but do more polital work consistently, then the average voting person. Just because some works outside the parameterts of " our current electorial system ' doesnt mean that said person doesnt have the same right to have their demands voiced or considered.

Perhaps the precedent of having to vote for the lesser of evils is starting to rub people the wrong way?

Perhaps the growing trend of non voters despite massive media promotion of the need to vote shows that it is more important than ever to make an earnest push towards new techniques and models of creating legitimate public representation?

[fable]

Originally Posted by Miss T

^^^

I agree, if you don't vote, you have no rights to bitch about anything!

Why? Is it because you assume that voting is the only legitimate way of getting your demands met by "our' elected representatives? What in contemporary politics represents this?(go back as far as you would like)

i personally vote, becuase while i defend the rights of people to not vote, i think until we are in a position to enact a new system, i have to work in the context of the old.

BUT, the days of having to vote between the lesser of two evils, needs to come to an end. granted there will never be a "perfect" candidate, the evolutionary path of the political and social landscape in this city, province, country demonstrates the lack of faith of the working class peoples of their representatives in power.

[jono]

Originally Posted by fable

BUT, the days of having to vote between the lesser of two evils, needs to come to an end. granted there will never be a "perfect" candidate, the evolutionary path of the political and social landscape in this city, province, country demonstrates the lack of faith of the working class peoples of their representatives in power.

Exactly. When it comes down to a giant douche vs. a turd sandwich there is very little motivation to vote. I'm not saying that anyone shouldn't vote but I think that a lot of apathy comes from the lack of a "good" option as opposed to an option that is less shitty but still shit.

[maztraz]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

dude, that is so ridiculous.

okay, you don't vote. who cares. but don't tell them to keep their comments to themselves, especially when they weren't offensive comments at all. that's the same as a vegetarian telling someone to be quiet because they heard them say they hate carrots. suck it up and move on.

Ridiculous...I see

I think you misunderstood what I wanted to show, maybe my english is not top, I was saying that as in, it is one directionnal.
I WAS also saying this in a possitive way thinking that theres other ideologies on this planetearth, and people that have other ways of interpreting communty responsibilites....
But I'm not going ferther, I think we've had this conversation before as I respect yours I would like the same from you ;)

Hope they're will be no misunderstood :)

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by Miss T

^^^

I agree, if you don't vote, you have no rights to bitch about anything!

didn't there already be a bitchfest about this back in the provincial election.

i have every right to bitch about everything. that's called freedom of speech. don't ever try to silence someone because they didn't vote for some reason or another. doesn't make them any less human nor does it make their political opinions any less thought out.

i didn't vote in this election because i couldn't. if i could, probably would have. but i didn't vote in the provincial election cuz i really didn't think anybody i'd have voted for would have at all been much of a representation.

doesn't mean i haven't learnt the issues at hand or haven't been paying attention. it's just i really have no case to plead at the time when people are most making promises they're not intending to keep.

[fritz]

feel free to draw your own conclusions, but I find it interesting that a lot of the issues affected and unified specific geographic areas, and all the winning votes came from other areas.

^Buses, Policing, Woodwards, Stadiums, 4Pillars

Also all four borrowing questions went through, everyone get ready for sweet taxes!

[Cdn_Brdr]

^I was thinking the same thing when I saw that map in the paper yesterday.

As for all the 'don't vote, don't bitch people' I have to agree with you. It's not that the people don't have the RIGHT to bitch.... sure they do, it's a free country. In turn, however, I have the right to not give a shit because you couldn't make the time of day to educate yourself and speak your mind on voting day.

A lot of people have the don't care attitude.... hate to say it but apathy is truly the bane of our political system. Not enough people actually care enough to do anything. It's sad.

[sidekick]

the thing is, i totally understand that there are people living in canada that completely disagree with out political system as a whole. they don't vote because they don't believe in supporting ANY of the parties and they don't believe in the system that we have put in place in canada to govern us.

oooookay, so you have the right to NOT vote. i respect that...to a point. but it is SUCH a cop out to say you still get to bitch about things, but you didn't vote because you don't agree with out 'political system'. sorry, but you live in canada and this is the way that our country has been run for years. if you don't agree with certain things, then you're going to have to take the route that everyone else does and express your disagreement through activism. not voting is a lame form of activism. it shows ignorance more so than anything else. don't agree with any of the political parties on the market right now? that's cool. go another route. start your own campaign, write into the papers, go out and reach people with your ideas...that's what is so cool about living here. you can do that. but simply NOT voting is not the way to go out and do it. that's just lazy, careless and easy. anyone can do that.

if you're going to bitch about the political system and not vote...then you better be doing something else active in society. otherwise i have no sympathy for you.