Paddle Your Own Canoe
Hmmm, are you determinedand engaged enough to keep paddling against the current?
The participation ratein elections is a good indicator of the current engagement level in thepopulation. What do I mean by engagement? I mean how motivated people are tostep up and play a role in what is happening around them. I could also look atit from the reverse angle and talk about disengagement as an indicator ofapathy.
The participation ratesin the last few elections tell a distressing story. The Canadian federalelection of 2021: 62% participation rate. The 2022 Ontario provincial election:43% participation rate. And finally, the recent Ontario municipal election: apaltry 36% participation rate overall with figures below 30% in some areas.
Why are things trendingin this direction? There are a few drivers that factor into the equation.
Election fatigue is onefactor: Three elections in a one-year period for those of us here in Ontario. Itwould be better if the various levels of government coordinated and left areasonable interval between elections. But political opportunism rules thatout.
The pandemic, more specifically the restrictions imposed around it, arguably also played a role. For two years were instructed to effectively disengage: pull in your horns and stay at home until further notice. Two years in that state created new, sometimes unhealthy behaviour patterns.
But the big driver isloss of faith in our elected officials. I challenge you to name a government inthe last decade that has not had a least a few high profile scandals. Thenthere are the broken promises piling up one after another. Again I challengeyou to name a government that kept more promises than it walked away from ordisavowed.
This loss of faithbreeds a why even bother mentality.Why bother putting in the effort to vote when most of the promises made will bebroken or compromised and when so many elected officials constantly fail tomeet basic ethical standards? It is a hard argument to refute.
But apathy is a verydangerous thing. If we all stop giving a damn, stop speaking out and stopparticipating in the democratic process, it allows a small percentage of peoplein positions of authority to do whatever they want. Experience shows that if wedo not hold them accountable, many of them will do what is in their bestinterest rather than our best interest.
Apathy is also anunhealthy state of mind. Nothing I dowill make a difference, so I will just stop trying. That kind of negativityis fertile ground for seeding anxiety, depression and other mental healthissues which are already at alarming levels.
Each one of us has a degree of control over the course of our lives. We are each paddling our own canoe in the direction we want to go which often means paddling against the current. Apathy kicks in when one or more of us loses motivation and decides just to drift wherever the current takes us. In that scenario, we almost always end up in place we do not want to be.
I am going to keeppaddling my canoe no matter how strong the current gets and how many people arejust drifting. I hope you will too. It is easier for each of us to get where wewant to go if all of us ae invested in the process.
~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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