Out of 88 thousand registered voters in Sarnia-Lambton, only 50% bothered to turn out to the polls. That figure is only slightly better than the rest of Ontario, where an abysmal 45% of over-all registered voters bothered to show up at all.
If that does not concern you, then it should. It is more proof that we are, culturally, more apathetic than ever. Sure, one could argue that voter turnout for provincial elections is usually lower compared to federal elections. However, since Canada’s confederation, the percentage of voter turnout is on a steady decline—particularly since the 1990s.
Apathy, in an era where we are becoming more frustrated at the status quo, is dangerous. This is the slow dying death of democracy as we know it. Something, something boiling frog. We have witnessed what happens in other countries where apathy takes hold. It shouldn’t take this much effort to ask people to care, yet somehow it does.
Trends dictate that it’s younger voters who are not turning out to polls compared to older generations. And while that has been true for a long time now, it is again declining rapidly, with young voters taking less and less interest in elections. Why?
Is it defeatism? Is it the endless doomscroll? Is it misinformation infiltrating the internet from every nook and cranny like a primordial ooze infecting people with “brainrot”? Is it our culture of detachment and irony telling us that it is cringe to give a sh*t? Maybe it’s just plain old laziness. I do believe a large part of it is due to lack of hope.
There is a constant bombardment on all our social feeds telling us fresh horrors every single second of every single day. Like it or not, the internet is a singular influence on our real lives. We are connected too much. It is sensory overload. Negativity has become a cornerstone of marketing and bad news pays.
Gen Z is the first generation raised completely on the internet. Gen Alpha will be the first generation to grow up not knowing a time before AI. What is happening in the States is terrifying for anyone that doesn’t fit into a certain mold. And there are threats of that happening here.
The internet once offered us the sanctity of knowledge. Now, we live in the age of misinformation. How do you know who to trust when someone has something to gain from your ignorance? We have demonized fact checking. Meta has dropped this feature entirely off their social media sites. Algorithms have pushed us farther into echo chambers where we can only hear our own voices. That is not to mention, the economic disparity that is theorized to correlate to low voter turnout.
How are we supposed to deal with this? It is understandable that people—particularly young people, whose once shiny futures have been worn down dull like a piece of discarded cardboard, would check out. Why care about what will happen when it feels like the end is nigh? It is difficult not to succumb to the darkness.
Yet sticking our heads in the sand is not a practical solution. When we choose not to participate, we are choosing to irresponsibly engage with the people around us. Checking out and not paying attention is how we end up in worse situations than if we bothered to look around us before it happened. Plus, the adage that my mom always said to me: nothing changes if nothing changes.
If you are dissatisfied with how things are, vote. If you want things to change, vote. Complaining and then doing absolutely nothing to make a difference is a part of the problem. Engage with your community. Find out what branches of government manage the things that you take issue with, stay informed and vote. Do something.
Especially because we live in a country that gives us the possibility to choose who represents us. This is a privilege not to be taken for granted, while we still have it. Do not let democracy take its last breath.
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction." -John F. Kennedy