Article - Thoughts on Voting

 ‘If You Are Not a Liberal When You Are Young, You Have No Heart, and If You Are Not a Conservative When Old, You Have No Brain.’

- Winston Churchill, paraphrasing Anselme Polycarpe Batbie (a 19th century French academic jurist).

 The Canadian federal election is in progress. This is an unusual election. Usually, you miss the Canadian elections. The radio and TV news and the newspaper talk about it, but the lead time is so short that you could entirely miss it. This time is different. Everyone seems interested.

I have two young voters at home. They have a simple view of the world. They hear progressive ideas in their academic circles. They see their colleagues pound the table, populism, free speech or a conflict in another part of the world. They don’t hear as much about fiscal responsibility, budget deficits, and economics. They don’t know much about what has been tried and abandoned. They have a good nose for detecting populism or fake news, but are prone to being taken in by gross simplification.

A few tips I gave them, in no particular order.

1. Don’t be a single issue voter. This election is about several issues - economy, environment, immigration, sovereignty, foreign policy and so on.  It’s valid to feel strongly about a single issue. But voting for a party just because they say things that you like about one issue will backfire.
2. Be forgiving of people’s motives, but learn to read through them. There will always be people who use all occasions to promote what they believe in. Don’t let that upset you, but learn to recognize the pattern.
3. You can’t read the present without knowing the past. If a political party agrees to fix your favorite issue, take some time to understand their track record on the issue.
4. If you have bad choices, you still have to pick the best one. Not voting is not an option. Conversely, every person who doesn’t bother voting makes your vote more valuable.
5. If possible, engage the candidate before you vote to form firsthand opinions.
6. In agile project management, they use the parlance of chicken and eggs. The roots of the analogy is in English breakfast. The chicken contributes to the breakfast through an egg. The pig is committed to the breakfast by contributing bacon. Be a chicken, not a pig. Just because you voted for a party, it doesn’t mean you’re beholden to them. It’s the opposite. You shouldn’t feel the need to defend the party you voted for. They should feel the need to earn your vote again. Being a fanboy/fangirl undersells your vote.
7. A lie ceases to be a lie when the truth is not expected to be spoken. Political leaders need to make some statements and avoid making other statements, in order to pacify their political bases. Be aware, and be forgiving.

Idealistic, perhaps. But this is how I think about voting.