Nov 13 2008
How Not to Choose a Political Party - Part One
Lots of people will tell you how to identify which candidates or parties best suit your beliefs or needs. Although from my experience, it seems as though many people don’t put enough thought into the process and may even do it in a seemingly random fashion.
To help my readers out, I will provide this handy list of what not to do. If one of the following methods has been used by you in the past in making your voting decisions, you may want to rethink your choice.
1) Physical Apperance. This has gone either way. Some people vote for the most attractive candidate, some for the ugliest (pity votes?). This is often a moot point, as all candidates running for a particular office are the standard 45 year old or older, white male with a background in law. Ever seen a photo of all candidates and thought “My God, they all look the same”? I know I have.
2) The colour of their signs. This is one that applies more in Canada, where as we have more official parties in the running, colour schemes are more apparent. Sometimes, a party will change the colour of their signs just to “freshen things up” - or confuse those voters who make colour coded choices. Which guy had the blue signs again??
3) Random chance. Playing eeny meeny miney mo, using a coin toss or consulting a Ouija board. All methods that remove your thought and therefore your blame. Sure, it might be convenient to blame the spirits of the Ouija board when the person you voted for leaves office in scandal, but….come on.
4) Identifying more with one party’s animal. An elephant or a donkey? What the hell does that mean anyway? Although, I’d personally love to see what mascots the political parties in Canada would choose. Would they fight over who got the beaver? Would we cheer at the sight of the Liberal Llama? Voters want to know! Seriously though….
5) Asking the candidates to pick a number between one and ten. Similar to the random chance thing. I guess in this way, you’re allowing them to campaign to you, in a manner of speaking. Another alternative is voting for whoever you hear say “the” most often. Tough but fair.
To be continued.
