Little Life Lessons

As a little update to my last post, all four of our favourite kids went with Steve and me as we voted in our municipal election on Monday. See how happy they are?

I have voted in every single election I was eligible to vote in. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. There is no excuse not to vote. Except maybe being out of the country. Or being dead or almost dead. Or the person you love the most being almost dead. Or having sick kids. Those *might* be good reasons. I considered just once not voting. It was a municipal election. It was my first municipal election. I didn't own property or have children in school so it seemed not so important that I have a say in local government. And then I hit a giant pothole and realized that even if I don't pay property taxes, I pay rent to people who pay property taxes and that my day to day life was affected more than I had given credit.

I feel blessed to live in a democracy. I feel privileged to have a say. I feel included and part of a process to make a choice. I will always vote. ALWAYS.



I learned this morning that Canada has lost its seat on the United Nations' Security Assembly. I am so sad. As I understand it, we lost our seat for being absent. That's right, our government had more important things than world security/peace to do. HOW SHAMEFUL. How arrogant and stupid do we need to be? I am curious if this will change anything in the next federal election. I will be there. I will show up. I will vote. How about our government? How about you?

Election Day

I am about to go pick my children up from their school. When we get home we will walk across the street to the polling station so that they can watch me vote. I could have done it while they are at school but I really want them to have the opportunity to see democracy in action. It's a municipal election that we are in the midst of. I will place three marks on a ballot, one for our Mayor, one for our City Councillor, and one for our Public School Board Trustee.

There have been some big issues come up in our city since the last election. First and foremost in the media's attention seems to be the issue of whether or not to close our city centre airport and reuse the prime property for other things. We have an International airport about 30 km south of the city through which most of our air travel already occurs but many people are concerned about the possible closure of this airport which small planes fly in and out of. There are other bigger issues for me, as always: taxes and how that money is spent. And for my Public School Board Trustee: school closures. I know who I'm voting for based on an Internet candidate's forum and history in public office. I won't count myself among the most informed of voters but I try AND more importantly I will exercise my right to participate in a democracy by voting. Will you?