Mark this up as an epic win for Canadian freedom lovers. Canada recently had an election with the lowest voter turnout in the country's history!
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadians shunned the polls during their general election with the lowest voter turnout on record, even as a global financial crisis threatened to plunge the nation's economy into recession.
Some 59.1 percent of eligible Canadian voters went to the polls Tuesday, breaking the previous record low turnout of just under 61 percent in 2004, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada released on Wednesday.
"There was either general apathy toward the candidates or a degree of voter fatigue as this was the third Canadian election since 2004," said Antonia Maioni, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.
That means that essentially, 40.9% of the people voted for the electable seats to be vacant. 40.9% of Canadians voted to not have a government.
Government officials are understandably frightened...
An official from the New Democratic Party said the low voter turnout was a big worry for the country.
"It should concern all of us, no matter which party we're in," NDP Member of Parliament Libby Davies told CBC Radio.
Correction: the low turnout is a big worry for Canadian politicians, not for "the country." And yes, it should concern all the politicians, no matter what party they belong to.
I find it extremely amusing that while the average pro-voting citizen insists that casting a vote is the only way to change the status quo, the politicians quoted here have admitted that the record high non-vote is the real danger. The politicians have let the truth slip out that no matter what party they belong to, they
are the status quo, and the real threat to their status quo, and the possibility of actual "change," can only be the non-vote.
