A Case for Voting for 'Fringe' Parties
That collective yawn you hear across the province is the sound of the Ontario electorate responding to the current provincial election campaign. And who can blame them? Recent years have seen a steady increase in voter apathy with respect to the political process, both at the provincial and federal levels. This has manifested itself in dwindling voter turnouts and shockingly dismal approval and trust ratings for politicians. A Leger Marketing poll released last May starkly brought out this latter point. It indicated a paltry 15 per cent of Canadians trust politicians. That’s not a typo. Fifteen per cent. Just a notch above used car salesmen. As for voter turnout, by the 2004 federal election, only 61 per cent of eligible Canadians were bothering to mark an X on the ballot – the lowest percentage since Confederation. These numbers are continuing into the current provincial election campaign, with a scant 15 per cent of Ontario voters trusting Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty to keep his ...