[LINK] "The Forgotten Bloc"

[rfmcdonald]

What James Bow says, more or less. I'm not for proportional representation inasmuch as the plans put forward strike me as undemocratic, but the theme of disenchantment is certainly present here in Camada.

By far, the largest voting bloc in this country are those eligible voters who don’t vote. In the 2008 election, only 59.1% of voters turned out to the polls. The 40.9% who stayed home represented 9,573,987 voters. That’s more voters than there are people in New York City. That’s more voters than Conservative and Liberal supporters combined.

So, I’m a little confused why so much rhetoric has been spent by the various parties trying to get partisan voters to switch sides. Why are we so concerned about how many Liberals could vote Conservative and vice versa, or how many New Democrats could be enticed to the Liberal fold? Why is no party leader or policy maker going out and talking to the 9.5 million Canadians to ask them why they don’t vote? Why isn’t there any work being done to craft a policy or platform that can entice some of those eligible voters back to the voting booth (assuming the various parties could get past the credibility gap to catch the attention of these non-voting voters, many of whom are likely deeply cynical about such promises).

Consider the numbers, if just 10% of those 9.5 million voters found enough that they liked in a particular party’s platform — enough to take a leap of faith and return to the democratic process — that would represent 950,000 votes, the equivalent of the Green Party’s support in the last election, or almost 7% of the electorate. 950,000 votes would significantly close the gap between the Liberals and the Conservatives, or between the New Democrats and the Liberals — and that’s assuming each party keeps those voters who voted for them in 2008. With Conservative party support down from its 2008 numbers, an additional million voters heading to the Liberals could be enough to change a government.

Of course, the big question is what it policies it would take to convince some of those 9.5 million electors to come back to the voting booth, not to mention convincing them that the policy promises were being made seriously and would be kept once the ballots were counted. I can’t help but suspect that since many have walked away from the democratic process because they feel their votes do not count anymore, the policy that could get them back would have to be democratic reform — either proportional representation, or even something simpler, like having a “none of the above” option placed on the ballots.

[. . .]

The 9.5 million voters who have chosen not to vote represent a rot in the Canadian democratic process. They represent a disconnect. The way the system is designed allows the mainstream parties to govern without regard to what would be a majority mandate if those 9.5 million came off the fence and voted en masse for their own party, but it’s a phantom mandate. Over 40% of voting Canadians gave no consent for this government to govern, and yet the government governs regardless. How is that democracy? How is that right?