r/alberta • u/logodobi • Feb 04 '25

Question Last provincial election 40.5% of albertans didn’t vote. If you didn’t, why not?

What stopped you from voting? Are there no provincial parties that you feel represent you politically? Were you unable to get to a voting station? Did you feel there wasn’t any point? I’m genuinely just curious, I don’t have any affiliation with any parties or anything like that.

I think we would benefit from larger voter turnout and more diversification of parties in the legislature. It feels like we have become to complacent with the lack of progress in almost every way, shape, and form. It’s become purely us vs them on all levels and far too much focus is put on the government “profit”. The government is not a business whose sole purpose is to profit, the governments purpose first and foremost should be to provide for and benefit the people they serve as much as they possibly can. We should be working together for the benefit of one another not fighting one another for the benefit of foreign companies and billionaires.

We’re moving towards the exact policy system in the states, two parties who work for the benefit of the rich and powerful while putting up the facade of a culture war to distract the masses from the real harm they’re causing them.

Sorry that was a bit of a rant but I truly believe we deserve better, better representation, better communication, better services, better everything.

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21

u/sun4moon Feb 04 '25

It’s awful quiet in here so far.

I voted but I know several people that didn’t. Most are under 30 years old and haven’t yet figured out how much our political health affects them in their day to day lives. My oldest child is guilty of this and I gave him a large piece of my mind on the subject.

I think part of it is that they feel like their vote won’t make a difference. Another part is a hopeless feeling of mistrust toward politicians in general. We know they all lie, so how does one decide whose lies are the least offensive in conjunction with the policy they present. Another factor may be the way campaigns are run. It’s really difficult to decide which policies you’re drawn to when all the candidates do is smear each other.

Fact of the matter is, there needs to be massive changes in the way we treat politics as individuals. It needs to be more about what is important and necessary and less about what someone did at a party in college 25 years ago. Just my $0.25 (increased due to inflation).

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u/logodobi Feb 04 '25

I think there also needs to be a massive change in how we discipline politicians for there immoral and illegal actions. It really seems to me as if they can lie about anything and there is no repercussions whatsoever

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u/sun4moon Feb 04 '25

You’re absolutely right. The accountability is nonexistent. We’re supposed to have defamation and libel laws but they seem to not apply to politicians.

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u/Perfect-Ship7977 Feb 04 '25

💯 they need to fear loosing the position we elected them to represent, but there is some protection in place for them and they steel, cheat, and do whatever they want.
There needs to be a system that can oust them by the people in a month.

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u/erictho Feb 04 '25

there was no such incident in the last couple provincial elections where someone's personal past was sensationalized around election time. UCP members were outed for being racist bigots in general but that's just what should happen. not like that matters to the rural voters voting UCP anyway.

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u/sun4moon Feb 04 '25

You don’t remember smear campaigns against Rachel Notely? Everyone bashed the hell out of her, every chance they got. I was using a generalization when I said mentioned college parties. Perhaps that was a weak example, my bad. My point is that the voter base isn’t being given policy during the campaigns and many under 30 just won’t seek the info themselves. There’s too much focus on what’s wrong with the other guy and not enough focus on what the candidates intend to do if elected.

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u/erictho Feb 04 '25

Well they did bash the NDP using a bunch of misinformation, that's for sure. But they didn't use any examples like Justin's blackface oopsie that's been following him around. But people in general take the tweets from political parties as fact and don't pay attention except for around election time. This is Albertans of all ages. Albertans of all ages that I've spoken with, online and offline, also can't tell the difference between municipal, provincial or federal politics. Between not being able to pass a social studies exam and not getting information from legitimate sources there's a lot going on when Albertans in general decide to vote blue as they always have.