There was a chorus of roused youth at UVic on the radio this morning. A rant by Rick Mercer on the need for young adults to get out and vote was at the heart of it. Fairly straightforward, you’d think. Ah yes, of course it was not what you’d expect.
Here’s the rant,
And the response from a group of students at the local university was mostly, well, like, um, we’d vote but no one’s told us how to go about making an informed choice. Shouldn’t something be taught in school about this sort of thing? I mean, like, if it’s supposed to be so, you know, like, important and everything.
*sound of forehead meeting table* repeat.
Which brings me to one of my pet hobby horses. Reading, writing and arithmetic are all very well and good but unless we also teach our little sugar plums how to think, how to 
examine issues for themselves and how to draw conclusions, all we have managed to do is build a better biological robot that runs on macaroni and cheese and ingratitude.
The last week of a campaign is not the time to bring up a condensed version of civics class or an overview of political science 101. This is time to draw everything to a close, to check your schedule for the last of the candidates meetings and to look on your calendar for when you can go to the poll to actually mark that little x beside the name of the candidate of your choice.
This is not the time to discuss the party versus the individual candidate. Or to get all bent 
out of shape over the spectre of strategic voting and fall into the trap of betting against a Sicilian when death is on the line…oh, that was a few posts ago, wasn’t it….
Vote. Just do it. And once the day is over and all the dust settles, keep yourself informed on issues. Make note of who your Member of Parliament is, regardless of who you voted for and also what parties the other local MP’s represent. When an issue comes up that you feel strongly about, write your MP. If you need assistance with a federal government problem, contact your MP’s office. If your MP isn’t sitting on the right side of the two sword lengths to be having coffee with the minister in charge of your problem, find out the closest MP to you that does have a place at the government caucus table. Contact that person as well as your own MP.
Most important, when someone starts in on how it really doesn’t matter who you vote for, they’re all crooks and swindlers, it’s all a racket, just remember this scene from Life of Brian. The more things change, the more you will come to resemble your grandparents.