The Dignified and Democratic Canadian Voting Process
I am happy to announce that my 85-year old grandma will be exercising her right to vote tomorrow. And I couldn't be more proud of that!
The fact she wants to vote is incredible because although she came to this country late in her life and her affairs are all taken care of by her family, she still has an interest. The fact that she CAN vote is a great honour for her because Communist Chinese didn't exactly allow for that when she was younger back in the village.
Now that we have her desire to participate in the democratic process taken care of, the logistics of her vote is the next issue at hand.
1) Can she make an informed decision about who to vote for? She does watch Fairchild TV several hours a day and aside from the Chinese operas and dramas, there is the occasional news program. I don't know how informed her vote is for but she announced at dinner on Saturday that she will be voting for "the one with the Chinese wife". Struck with bewilderment, we clarified that she hadn't made that choice due to cultural assimilation but rather by their political platform. OK, I'm glad to hear that...though I'm not exactly sure what type of influence the volunteers and staff at her Geriatric Care facility had when explaining the voting process at their Elections seminar last week. After my grandma made her declaration, we started a mini-debate between my dad, uncle and myself. My uncle responded, "Don't vote for him, he won't give you any money. Vote for Martin, he'll give you money."
"Don't list to him," my dad retorted, "they're not going to give you that much money. We pay for your things anyway." So with the prospect of getting more money, my grandma changed her mind and said she was going to vote for 'Ma-tin'.
"No, Grandma, you can't do that," I exclaimed, "If you vote for 'Ma-tin', my children won't have any money left, nor will my grandchildren."
That did the trick. She looked at me with a look that only a grandmother can give and as she patted my arm, said, "OK, OK, I want your grandchildren to have a good life too. I won't vote for 'Ma-tin." I WIN!!!
2) Next problem, and this is a big one. How will she know which circle to mark her 'X' in? There's no colour coding, to avoid subconscious colour bias and unfair discrimination against the colourless independents, so we can't couch her by colour differentiation. Surely even with her weakening eyesight, she could have distinguished red from blue from orange. So, I decided to look up all the candidates in her riding and coach her on the order in which the list of candidates will appear on her ballot. I'm glad she only needs to mark an 'X' because otherwise, literacy would definitely be a problem. Luckily, she does know how to sign her name in English and that does appear on her photo ID.
3) So how is she going to actually get out and vote? I guess one of us could take her but we don't need to cause the staff/volunteers at her home have made arrangements. I'm not exactly sure if they are going to be transported to their local polling station or if something will come to them. But if they are going to their polling station, that would suck for all of those people in line behind them as 200+ senior citizens slowly, very slowly, follow the voting process.
But however slow or complicated the accommodation or explanation necessary, I think it's awesome that it's happening at all. Some people, not only young, just don't care and are complacent. Well, part of the honour of becoming a Canadian citizen is the right to vote. I am so proud that my grandma wants to vote.
Grandma, we ain't in Communist China no more!
The fact she wants to vote is incredible because although she came to this country late in her life and her affairs are all taken care of by her family, she still has an interest. The fact that she CAN vote is a great honour for her because Communist Chinese didn't exactly allow for that when she was younger back in the village.
Now that we have her desire to participate in the democratic process taken care of, the logistics of her vote is the next issue at hand.
1) Can she make an informed decision about who to vote for? She does watch Fairchild TV several hours a day and aside from the Chinese operas and dramas, there is the occasional news program. I don't know how informed her vote is for but she announced at dinner on Saturday that she will be voting for "the one with the Chinese wife". Struck with bewilderment, we clarified that she hadn't made that choice due to cultural assimilation but rather by their political platform. OK, I'm glad to hear that...though I'm not exactly sure what type of influence the volunteers and staff at her Geriatric Care facility had when explaining the voting process at their Elections seminar last week. After my grandma made her declaration, we started a mini-debate between my dad, uncle and myself. My uncle responded, "Don't vote for him, he won't give you any money. Vote for Martin, he'll give you money."
"Don't list to him," my dad retorted, "they're not going to give you that much money. We pay for your things anyway." So with the prospect of getting more money, my grandma changed her mind and said she was going to vote for 'Ma-tin'.
"No, Grandma, you can't do that," I exclaimed, "If you vote for 'Ma-tin', my children won't have any money left, nor will my grandchildren."
That did the trick. She looked at me with a look that only a grandmother can give and as she patted my arm, said, "OK, OK, I want your grandchildren to have a good life too. I won't vote for 'Ma-tin." I WIN!!!
2) Next problem, and this is a big one. How will she know which circle to mark her 'X' in? There's no colour coding, to avoid subconscious colour bias and unfair discrimination against the colourless independents, so we can't couch her by colour differentiation. Surely even with her weakening eyesight, she could have distinguished red from blue from orange. So, I decided to look up all the candidates in her riding and coach her on the order in which the list of candidates will appear on her ballot. I'm glad she only needs to mark an 'X' because otherwise, literacy would definitely be a problem. Luckily, she does know how to sign her name in English and that does appear on her photo ID.
3) So how is she going to actually get out and vote? I guess one of us could take her but we don't need to cause the staff/volunteers at her home have made arrangements. I'm not exactly sure if they are going to be transported to their local polling station or if something will come to them. But if they are going to their polling station, that would suck for all of those people in line behind them as 200+ senior citizens slowly, very slowly, follow the voting process.
But however slow or complicated the accommodation or explanation necessary, I think it's awesome that it's happening at all. Some people, not only young, just don't care and are complacent. Well, part of the honour of becoming a Canadian citizen is the right to vote. I am so proud that my grandma wants to vote.
Grandma, we ain't in Communist China no more!
posted by glor at 11:31 p.m.
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