Don't fall into the trap that your vote doesn't count

No question this is a decisive election. The real question: On voting day, will you be one of the decision-makers? Or will you be one of the delegators, relying on others to decide on your behalf while you are relegated to the role of spectator on the sidelines? Democracy is about who decides. Politicians presume to make big decisions, but the biggest decision is still ours to make: The power to pick the person and party who wield decision-making power on our behalf remains firmly in the hands of voters like you and me.

Unless we let it escape our grasp. That’s what distinguishes Canadian democracy from autocracy, or the authoritarianism that is rising around the world and encroaching awfully close to home. We may not always like the people in power, but we the people empower the politicians — and we can disempower them.



You and I get the final say on election day. Unless, of course, you don’t cast a ballot — leaving you with no say, no sway, no voice, no vote. It is tempting to fall into the trap that your vote doesn’t count.

So let us count the ways. The most common excuse is that the outcome is a foregone conclusion — the early polling results suggest the final results have been decided in advance and so there is no important decision left to make. The premise is that the polls are predictive, but it is a false premise.

No poll can preordain the final result. It is not scientifically possible. No matter how rigorous the statistical methodology of a survey that relies on a sample of voters who are representative of the country’s demography and geography, polls are merely snapshots in time.

They tell us what people are thinking when asked, well in advance; but no poll can foretell with precision whether they will think to vote on election day. That’s why the final contours of an election are almost always uncertain and indiscernible: Will it be a landslide or merely a comfortable majority, a slim majority or a slight minority? Might there be an upset that leads to a parliamentary deadlock and fresh elections if one minority party — for example a separatist party — tries to extort concessions that no national government could responsibly agree to in the national interest? Imagine a deadlocked parliament at a time when Canada is locked in a deadly serious confrontation with the United States — a tariff battle, a trade war, an economic blockade, or a power play to siphon off our water or intrude into the waterways we claim as our own? Another excuse: This high stakes election is pre-destined to have a high turnout, so democracy will be redeemed regardless of whether you vote or not. To be sure, this is an election unlike any other in recent memory.

But remember that in the Feb. 27 Ontario election, called by Premier Doug Ford at the height of Donald Trump’s insults and insinuations, a majority of eligible voters did not cast ballots. While it’s true that the premier won an impressive third consecutive majority, voters did not abide by his appeal to send a strong message to the U.

S. president. Past experience suggests that the biggest single factor driving high turnouts is a “change” election where people want to see a new face at the top to face fresh challenges at ground level.

This campaign fits the broad definition of a “change” election — allowing voters to change Liberal leaders (swapping out Trudeau for his successor, Mark Carney) or change to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — in a time of disruptive change, thanks to Trump’s tariff and territorial threats. That said, I’m uncomfortable with the idea that some elections are more important than others — it feels wrong to weigh in only when motivated by past grievances or worried about current uncertainty. Every election mandate involves unpredictability, for we can never know what lies ahead — a COVID pandemic, a global recession, a natural disaster or a man-made disaster.

Which is why every election counts. A final excuse: Diehard advocates for proportional representation believe our voting system is insufficiently democratic, because not every vote counts decisively in ridings where one party has a lopsided lead. In truth, the popular vote totals count for a great deal.

And the overall turnout is a testament to our collective belief in democracy at a time when it faces unprecedented threats. Without getting down in the weeds about electoral reform, the decision to change our democratic voting system isn’t as easy as it sounds. Ontarians rejected a variation on proportional representation the last time they were asked in the democratic referendum of 2007.

The notion that your vote might be a wasted vote — merely because you are outvoted by others in your riding or a referendum — is hardly a vote of confidence in democracy. Don’t sit it out until you get the democracy of your dreams, for the perfect is the enemy of the good. I spent a decade abroad as a foreign correspondent, covering the fight for democracy around the world and watching people risk their lives to be counted.

That’s why I believe passionately that every vote counts in our country. It’s always been hard for me to imagine Canadians counting themselves out. Today, given the ongoing threat to democratic norms in America, it’s harder than ever to fathom indifference.

An election is a terrible thing to waste. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha.

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