Flit

WELL, ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS WON, ANYWAY

The fact that an openly honest man who only wants to talk with voters about the issues can still win political office has to be a good sign. Dalton McGuinty's got a hell of a job ahead of him, as it's fairly clear to everyone the Tories robbed the provincial treasury to finance their pre-election voter-bribe goodies and we're facing one hell of a deficit starting today.

People are saying the real scandal is the low voter turnout in Ontario. I always thought part of the reason was the obstacles in the way of anyone not living with their parents in their early 20s voting. You've basically got to go home, like Joseph to Bethlehem, rather than in the city you're going to school or whatever. That means the people knocking on doors, etc. have no interest in you, and neither do those in your parents' riding. It's been that way for the two decades I've been around to notice it... all the evidence is, voting is a life habit and in Ontario it's actively discouraged until you're 25 and can't be bothered anymore. The plummeting numbers now are largely those young people, now not so young, who were turned away from the polls back when they were in college.

The reason it never gets fixed has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with Ontario political parties having no interest in youth bloc voting in the ridings with big universities in them. The only party likely to benefit if it were changed, on the whole, would be the leftist New Democrats, and they're barely even a party now.

When I went to U of T, and had to vote in Deep River, a seven-hour drive away, I lost all interest in elections, and it's been darn hard to get it back since. Everyone runs around surprised that no one under 35 votes any more. The simple fact is when we wanted to, they didn't care.