I’ll do my best not to just launch directly into some sort of extended political tirade, I will however save that for later.  Got to vote today, a whole couple of days early, oh the privileges of being professionally homeless.  I’ll let all you happy voters in the seat of Berowra into a little secret, if you fill in below the line you will need to be able to count to 79.

Anyways, it was kind of refreshing to not be bombarded with dozens of pieces of propaganda whilst going into vote, and was even more refreshing to not have to wait in line at all to vote.  Just waltzed straight in to a stripped out office on the third floor of the building that houses the Australian Consulate General in Toronto.

Well, when I say I wasn’t bombarded with propaganda on my way in, that isn’t completely true - there was one guy there campaigning for the Labor party so after I had exercised my Democratic "priivilege" I tried to strike up a little bit of conversation with him.

Turns out he’s a die-hard Labor supporter (no surprises there), lives in Toronto and is currently un-employed so decided to spend his day(s) out the front of the polling place spreading the gospel of Kevin.  Something has been plaguing my thoughts of late, and decided to impose the query on him - just what is the deal with compulsory voting?

His response was somewhat expected, he compared it to taxation - you have to pay taxes, you pay for the government therefore you should have to choose the leadership which spends it.  He then referenced what he calls the political crisis in Canada, where in the last election they had only a 40% voter turnout. 

My question is, and the one I can’t shake is, what would you prefer - a 40% presumably informed, intelligent and dedicated vote or a 40% presumably informed, intelligent and dedicated vote and a 60% apathetic, un-informed vote?  Although I have a lot of respect for random Kevin Rudd campaigner guy, this is where he lost me as he started rambling about how he [Howard] aims to disenfranchise the youth of today.  Whilst not completely un-accurate, why is it that so many people confuse complaints about Political Structure or Political Ideology with complaints about leadership?

Anyways, I believe that un-informed voting in Australia is why we see so many politicians re-elected, and part of the reason why John Howard has been Prime Minister for such a long time.  I mean after all, if you don’t know any better, better the Devil you know right?

Doesn’t the whole forcing you to vote go against the whole underlying ideology of freedom that democracy is supposed to provide?  Isn’t not having an opinion on something the same as having an opinion?  I’d feel a lot more confident in the whole procedure if I knew that the people who had been elected to represent what could be a great country were elected by people who were not only passionate about the issues that matter, they actually know what the issues that matter are.

Just in case you were wondering, I voted double Green.  They’re our best chance at having a third major party - a two party system doesn’t work.

But that’s a whole different can of worms.