You need to show up.

In our recent by-election only 38 percent of eligible voters showed up: 37,298 of 97,016.

The winner of the election received 14,430 votes (or 38.69 percent). While this represents a higher percentage of votes than the next candidate (who got 12,428 or 33.32 percent), it represents a mandate from only 14.87 percent of all eligible voters.

If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.

For anyone who believes in democracy, it isn’t about who you vote for, it’s about casting your vote.

Democracy is about responsibility. The minimum responsibility is voting. It is not difficult, but it takes enough effort to request a mail-in ballot, to locate the voting station, whether early or on the day of. There are agencies that will assist you in doing this.

In any society, we’re all in this together. We need to show up. For ourselves, for each other, for those who cannot, for those future generations who are not yet here.

Candidates need to show up too. Not just to vote, but to let voters know who it is we’re voting for. The winner of the current by-election did not show up for the in-person debate during the election period. Did this set the tone for low voter participation? Was this a cynical campaign strategy? Win by modeling less than democratic behaviour?

Is this a trend? The 2022 provincial election saw the lowest voter turnout in its entire history (43.5 percent). Municipal elections across Ontario in that same year hit the lowest turnout since 1982 at 36 percent.

There are plenty of possible explanations. “Election exhaustion” from Federal, Provincial and Municipal votes all within a year may have worn us out. Perhaps the habit of staying home during the pandemic lingers, and we have not fully resumed our public, civic engagement. 

Or perhaps just engagement in public, civic life is dying. 

Politics has become increasingly negative. Candidates often tell us more about their opponents than about themselves. And if the only message that gets out is how awful everyone is, why would we vote for anyone?

Is it possible that people did not vote because they are happy with status quo? From what I can observe on local social media groups, residents are very upset about the lack of support for healthcare, the lack of infrastructure funding, the weakening of the public education system, and the affordable housing crisis, especially Ford’s ending of rent control on new buildings, just to name the big items.

People do not seem happy with the status quo.

Is it possible that citizens feel that they have “voted” by posting these concerns to social media forums? This is a false, delusive democracy. It is the equivalent of a parent making their child feel empowered by offering a “choice” between having their breakfast toast cut into squares or triangles (yes, I have done this many times, and yes, it works).

Social media is a platform where people feel they have a voice much more effective than casting a mere, single vote. I can say something political on Facebook and experience an almost immediate result, whether it is confirmation or confrontation: it somehow feels more real than anonymously, silently, casting a vote. But we should all remember that what happens on Facebook has no connection to the process by which we elect our representatives. I may feel heard, but I haven’t voted.

Anything that does not result in a vote cast is service to authoritarianism.

There are 22 countries across the world, with a total population of 744 million, that require voting by law.

Is there something undemocratic about mandatory voting? The “liberty” not to vote is a self-oppression; it ensures that you will not be heard. If you don’t like any of the candidates, show up and register your dissatisfaction by officially spoiling your ballot. You can do this. In this year’s by-election 30 people officially “declined” their ballot (another 40 submitted unmarked ballots; 120 marked theirs in such a way as to make them invalid).

Earlier this summer, political commentator David Frum gave a talk in Wellington. He observed the fragility of democracy right now. Across the world, we have witnessed the rise of authoritarian governments. Even the most stable, taken-for-granted democracies have seen serious attempts to undermine elections. In the United States, distrust has been planted so deeply that a significant portion of the voting population refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the 2020 election. The legitimacy of the 2024 election is already being undermined. In what was one of the most stable democracies in the world. 

The democratic order established after World War II has been taken for granted for too long. We have not sustained our civic culture. We seem to have forgotten our neighbours. We say things through the anonymity of the internet that we would never say to a fellow human being, in person.

Here in Prince Edward County, we live in small communities in which it is quite possible to know most of our fellow citizens — even by just a smile or a wave, not to mention a handshake or a spontaneous conversation on a street corner. We have the opportunity and ability to recognize each other.

Recognition is about showing up. It’s about picking up a newspaper and seeing others doing the same. It’s about attending meetings public and private. It’s about maintaining your cultural and political literacy by recognizing that of others. Education need not be formal — it takes place by social interaction, by listening and speaking, not by a “mic-drop” victory in an online argument.

Authoritarian regimes thrive on distrust. They encourage fear of “others” because it is in their interest for us not to recognize our common humanity.

Showing up reminds us of our common humanity. The friendliness of the folks working the election station is just one small, but relevant, example. I interacted with no fewer than four people. Someone greeted me at the door. Someone guided me to a desk. Someone handed me a ballot. Someone took my ballot. I had friendly conversation with each person. They all thanked me for voting. When I left, I went to retrieve a copy of the Wellington Times, conveniently placed in a newspaper box just outside the North Marysburgh Recreation Centre. One of the scrutineers followed me. It was about 8:30 at night and not too busy. 

“Great minds think alike,” he laughed, reaching for his copy. And he, too, thanked me for voting.

We are in this together. Another election is coming soon: let’s all show up.