@ www.theotherpress.ca

 

Opinions

Geared up to vote, but alone at the starting gate

Where did all the voters go?

By Matthew Visser

s you’re likely aware, it’s
voting season. But the
question I ask is this: where

the hell are all the voters? In a time
when democracy is fought and died

for in other parts of the world, and
governments are losing followers faster
than Ashton’s post-Penn State-scandal

young voters is that they like to bash us
and say that we’re not doing our civic
duty, yet they aren’t doing anything

to motivate us to actually vote. Most
people I speak to in my age bracket
(18-26) who don’t vote either say it’s
because they don’t know who to vote
for, or they think that their single vote
won’t make a difference. But here lies
the problem. One vote, sure I can see

“Most people | speak to in my age bracket (18-26) who don’t vote
either say it’s because they don’t know who to vote for, or they
think that their single vote won't make a difference.’

Twitter feed, I am still confused when I
read about how some people don’t vote.
It’s my opinion that if you don’t vote,
than you can’t bitch. It’s that simple

It’s not like voting is even that hard
of an endeavour. All people have to do
is read the little handouts that potential
city councillors mail to your house
and think: “Hey I like what this person
stands for” or “This guy’s full of crap! I
would never vote for them.”

The problem I have with people
complaining about apathy amongst

their point. But when 100 people say
the same thing, it means there were 100
unused votes that could have been used
to bring about real changes.

I just got back from a two-month
stay in Europe, and I was immediately
bombarded with politics, big names on
signs, and wooden boards all around
me. All I could think was: “Whoa, slow
down! I just got here and I have no idea
what anybody even stands for!”

I recently went to an information
session—though it was more of a

@ Mayor Wayne Wright

political roller coaster—where I
listened to all of the hopeful candidates
tell me the same thing over and over
again, but they seemed to be more
concerned with just keeping their
mouths moving. I left the same as I had
entered, feeling lost and still thinking
that I might as well just vote for the
people who had the jobs last year. They
were doing an okay job and never did
anything too terrible. But I at least went

   

out and tried to understand the political
playground, with its fighting, name-
calling, promises, and ambitious ideas,
to see who my vote should go to. Isn’t
this what counts? So please, if not for
yourself, vote for me. Then at the end
of the day you can say that you voted
and that you performed your civic duty.
Then you're entitled to bitch for three
years until the next election.

 

Europe must federalize

The economic crisis demands unification

 

By J.D.R. Brown — The Cascade
(University of the Fraser Valley)

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. (CUP) —
There is only one proper remedy to
what ails Europe, and it is certainly
not tripling tuition fees and cutting
pensions as David Cameron has
done in the U.K. No, it is full fiscal
and political union: federalism.

The crisis in Europe has entered
even more troubling waters. Silvio
Berlusconi, the former prime
minister of Italy, recently agreed to
step aside on the condition that the
government adopt more austerity
measures. These reforms were
deemed necessary by the myriad
of interests in the European Central
Bank, the European Commission
and the governments of “core
Europe” (read: Germany et al.)
after the interest rates on Italian
government bonds raced toward
seven per cent — an incredibly high
number for a country that is still
solvent. A technocratic government,
led by the unelected Mario Monti,
a former European Commissioner,
has been formed.

Various European and North
American media float the idea that
this new interim government will
calm the markets and allow Italy to
continue to borrow as rates decline,
thereby holding off complete
catastrophe. I am not convinced.

Greece has announced its own
government of national unity which
will also be led by a technocrat
rather than an elected politician.
The bond vigilantes continue to
circle as a complete sovereign
default and exit from the Eurozone
looms.

Europe now stands at a
crossroads. The post-war project
of European integration has been,
up until this point, a resounding
success. Despite the spectre of war
between the Warsaw Pact and
NATO during the Cold War, Western
Europe has been without a major
conflict since the end of the Second
World War, and that is perhaps the
greatest evidence in favour of the
ongoing European project. But the
series of concentric circles that has,
up until now, characterized the
European Union are beginning to
collapse into one another. Europe
has been unable to effectively deal
with the series of fiscal calamities
that has come its way.

The various solutions that have
been proposed up until now have
been small potatoes in the very
worst way. Bailouts by Germany
and further commitments to back-
stop Greece, Portugal, Ireland and
others have done nothing to solve
the crises in any of these countries,
and have generally exacerbated
the economic calamities that

ordinary persons have to deal
with — especially unemployment.
What we are witnessing right now
is the failure of otherwise rational
actors to move beyond their petty
jealousies and save not just the
euro, but the future of the entire
European Project. Some European
elites have begun to float this idea
of federal integration, including the
former German foreign minister;
however, much more political will
is needed for such a drastic — and
necessary — solution.

At least amongst the countries
of the Eurozone, a federal
government with the powers of
taxation and a democratic mandate
would be able to save all of the
countries now under threat from
the bond markets. It would be able
to set up sane financial institutions
or at least modify the existing
financial institutions to be sane. It
could make the European Central
Bank a lender of last resort.

Europe remains at the brink.
We will see very quickly whether
the politicians and technocrats
will be able to stave off economic
Armageddon, and in the process
we may witness the birth of a truly
federal Europe. If we do not, I cannot
begin to imagine the consequences.

15