Just a thought… The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
We begin with heartfelt thoughts of sorrow and compassion for the people of Vancouver who lost family and are suffering today in light of Saturday night’s tragedy at a Filipino festival on an otherwise perfect spring evening. Our hearts are with you. Nagsisi kami ng husto. We are so sorry.
Today I am Switzerland. No pins or hats, no political chats; I’m setting it all aside as somebody helping my fellow countrywomen and men to vote.
After weeks of campaigning for the first time, and doing my small part to help our local candidate unseat a popular incumbent and give our area a stronger voice in Ottawa, I decided that rather than wait around all day for results, I’d do something else I’d never done before this year: sign up with Elections Canada.
The idea only occurred to me last Thursday. I did so online, not really thinking that at the last minute they’d have a cancellation. But they did, and I got a call Friday asking me to come to a three-and-a-half hour training session that very afternoon. I was up for a convertible ride, and free for a few hours, and said, “Sure!”
Of the ten men and women there, I was the oldest (and here I thought our riding was filled with young seniors like me, wanting to fill their hours). I surmised that some were students just adding a bit to their bank accounts, but others perhaps felt that, like me, they wanted to do their part in these days of national pride and unity.
I left the learning session feeling informed and ready for my job as an Information Officer today: basically I’ll be greeting voters as they come in out of the rain to cast their ballots, making sure they have their voter cards/ID/driver’s license or any other card issued by a Canadian government with photo, name and current address. If any of that is unclear to you reading this today, just go to Elections.ca and your answers will be there. Or bring whatever you have on hand and/or someone who knows you and is also voting at that site to vouch for you. We’ll have you covered.
I have to be there today for 6 am (ugh), as polls here open promptly one hour later. Then after they close at 7 pm in our area, I may be called upon to take part in witnessing or tallying votes as they are individually brought out of a heretofore sealed box, opened and announced. Check your local hours, as they differ across Canada.
There is so much I didn’t know about how election days work. We take it all for granted, don’t we? I came out of training Friday relieved that in our federal elections we use good ol’ fashioned paper ballots and pencils or pens (a voter’s choice) and tally them by hand in front of witnesses. No voting machines or computers that can be hacked; just humans doing their absolute best to uphold this sacred right and rite of a democratic country.
Today I’m putting aside my partisan hopes for the voting outcome. My job is to be neutral, including not wearing any major party’s colours of red, blue, orange, green or purple (yes, that’s a hard and fast rule), to be polite and helpful wherever I can, to answer questions, to pass people on to those folks who have the needed info, and probably to sit…a lot. Yes, I’m bringing my enVy Pillow but I don’t think they’d appreciate my Nespresso maker.
You see, our riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands saw Canada’s second-largest turnout in advance polls Easter weekend. First was in Poilievre’s riding of Carleton, where Liberal Bruce Fanjoy is hoping to fire the incumbent Conservative leader. But in that riding, the poor Elections Canada workers will truly be earning their $20 an hour: thanks to the Longest Ballot Committee, some 90 candidates are on the ticket. Who knows when those votes will all be tallied?
Personally, I’ll be glad not to have to be vigilant to keep trolls off my Facebook page when this week is over and the political temperature across the nation somewhat returns to normal. Hopefully we’ll ALL come out tomorrow ready to face whatever insanity floods towards us from the US, standing together for a strong and united Canada.
As for tomorrow…as Rob and I, along with thousands of other involved Canadians head out to gather up candidates’ signs from the sites they were placed or delivered (the rules say it has to be tomorrow), we’ll be thankful to have had a chance once again to make our voices heard, to have actively taken part in this precious process for the first time, and, most of all, to be Canadian.
Elbows Up, my friend – and may the best candidates win.