Don't forget to vote next Wednesday
Editorial

There's an amusing advertisement being played on local radio stations. It depicts a man sitting for a job interview, with a woman jumping in to answer any questions put to him, in a way that's not always to his liking.

The message is none of us likes to have other people speak for us, but that is in essence what we authorize when we fail to cast ballots at election time.

Next Wednesday (Oct. 10) is election day in Ontario, and it is a sad reality that a lot of you are not going to vote. Now we can accept some of you who don't vote might have a good reason, such as illness, unexpected family emergencies or something else that might prevent you from getting to the polls.

But the truth is a lot of you aren't going to vote because you can't be bothered. That means you are prepared to let someone else speak for you in terms of how much you're going to pay in provincial taxes for the next couple of years. That means you're okay with letting someone else have input on how your children are educated, while you're prepared to stay silent. That means you're indifferent on how the public health care system is run to the point that you're prepared to let someone else offer input that you might disagree with. And since we also have a referendum attached to the ballot this time, failure to vote means you really don't care about how your provincial government is formed or how your representatives get their jobs.

Excuse us if we're prying here, but what exactly do you care about, if you can't be bothered to vote?

Voting stations are set up reasonably close to where you live. For many of you, getting to them would require a walk of just a couple of minutes. And once inside the voting station, the process seldom takes more than five minutes, if that.

That small investment of time entitles you to take advantage of a right that men fought and died to preserve.

There are some of you who believe that your vote carries little weight. Well, it is true that one vote that is cast out of millions probably doesn't amount to much in the great scheme of things. But that same reality tells us that a vote that is not cast amounts to less, like nothing.

If having a vote that amounts to nothing appeals to you, then act accordingly, and sit back while the rest of us speak for you.

On the other hand, if you want your vote to count for something, even if it's only a little, you know how to proceed.