isn't it great how election time offers us all an opportunity to learn a bit more about each other? if we weren't allowed to put mark on a piece of paper, every now and then, we might even forget we live in a democracy!
here's my top ten list of ways to determine how your neighbours will vote in the federal election:
1. if they're uncertain conservatives they'll only have two, rather than the otherwise obligatory three (oak bay seems to require three), big blue signs on their expansive green chemical lawn properties. one sign conservatives are definitely not in stephen harper's wet dreams.
2. the folks next door to the three blue sign house, the ones with a 'for sale' sign, they probably aren't voting for the neo-cons.
3. those who like the way denise savoie represented us in city council and in her first term as mp, or those die-hard ndp supporters, they may display an orange sign. or, they may not, preferring to maintain the sanctity of privacy.
4. in north saanich/gulf islands, there's some doublespeak confusion among those wanting to vote green and finding themselves with a red briony penn sign adorning their native plant gardens.
5. in that same region devoted green party enthusiasts, who were willing to give elizabeth a chance to speak and still can't quite believe she stood them up in favour of a turncoat liberal (unlike the truly green liberal who is, for whatever reasons, actually running with that party), will have a sign that's nothing more than a twinkle in the eye of electoral process unless we get proportional representation.
6. if their main dose of electoral coverage is fed from the tax-payer funded national propaganda machine, the cbc, they'll unwittingly absorb the subtle conservative bias and find their arms mechanically reaching for blue. they'll never know about the canadian action party or the work-less party, or whatever other aspiring alternatives may exist.
7. some anarchists who might be enticed to actually vote (even though they don't want to encourage a system based on theft and murder) are perhaps wondering - who is the work-less party candidate, anyways? ultimately, they don't care. they're busy doing democracy, without waiting for permission from dad.
8. you'll never really know how people living in apartments and condominiums intend to vote.
9. likewise those who live behind one of the last remaining shrubberies, sleeping on ground that hasn't been polluted with smelly fish fertilizer. they probably won't be allowed to vote even if they bothered to try.
10. keep in mind, of course, it's none of your freakin' beezwax how anyone else votes or doesn't. if they vote more than once, though ..... that's everyone's business.
