Balloons and bands, chicken barbeques and paper hats aside, the electoral season in both Canada and the US have been anything but a party.
Candidates in both elections are widely viewed as the lesser of two evils, or "the devil you know", versus "the devil you don't".
It's a sad commentary when the most inspiring political leader in North America at this moment seems to be a fictional television character.
As noble as Jed Bartlet is, it cannot be denied that his oratorical brilliance and consistant moral triumph comes in some part from the luxury of having opponents who are conveniently scripted to accede to his overall, well, rightness.
The real world isn't like that, and partly as a result, real-world politics isn't nearly as satisfying or tidy. Moral dilemmas are not tied up with a neat bow at the end of an episode, and the correct answer doesn't appear, like a beacon out of the mist, to guide our actions.
In the last US Presidential election, voter turnout was 49%, and that was 49% of registered voters, not of the US population. A lower percentage of Americans vote than do the citizens of any other democratic country, except Switzerland. (Source) That is, to be perfectly honest, disgraceful in a country which considers itself to be the epitome of democracy. (Whether it is or not is for others to debate.) In Canada, where voter turnout is traditionally much higher, 66.7% visited the polls in the 1997 Federal election - better, if not stellar. If the expressions of apathy are any indication, it will be much lower this time.
In a world where people are literally killed and maimed trying to win or exercise their right to vote, it just isn't good enough. If you're disappointed because there is no real-life "Jed Bartlet" on the ticket this year in your state, province, or Capital, if what he represents is powerful enough to make you wish that he really existed, then take a moment to consider what a real-life Jed would say to you about voting.
"Vote. Vote for the Democrat. He'd be my choice, naturally. Or vote for the Republican. Vote for Nader. In Canada, vote for the Liberals or vote for the Tories. Think hard about voting NDP. Vote if you must," Jed would say, "vote if you must for Stockwell Day." (Jed and Stock wouldn't see eye-to-eye on too too much) "But vote. And none of this write-in nonsense, either. I'm not on the ticket. Your forefathers and mothers worked too hard to safeguard this democratic process for you to throw it back in their faces by scribbling my name, the name of a mere ghost of a person, on your ballot."
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