Thursday, June 24, 2004

Your vote is an endorsement, nothing more, nothing less

I keep seeing these TV interviews with voters whining "I don't support seperatism but I'm voting for Duceppe because I want to send the liberals a message" or "I don't support what the conservatives want to do but I'm voting for Harper because of the sponsorship scandal" or "I like Paul Martin but I'm not voting for him because the Liberals are too arrogant."
It's just dumb. If you want to send Martin a message, write a letter, or phone a talk show, or start a blog. Your vote is not a message, it's an endorsement.
Everyone who votes for the Bloc is voting for separatism. Period.
Everyone who votes for Harper is voting to support the Conservative agenda, open and hidden. Period.
That's how the parties will read your vote -- it's how they should read it. No winning politician, even someone who wins by one vote, ever says "Yes, I know I won, but the voters didn't really support my platform, so I'm not going to enact it after all." Nope -- quite rightfully, they view their win as an endorsement of their party's beliefs.
So if Duceppe wins in Quebec, and if Harper wins in the rest of Canada, I don't want to hear any whining on June 29 about how the result doesn't really mean increased support for separatism, or increased support for conservatism. That's only what it means. That's exactly what it means. Period.

No comments: