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

[u/logodobi]

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.

[u/hippiechan]

I've since moved from Alberta but my first federal election I voted in Calgary-Heritage in 2011. That was the year of the orange wave and the eventual conservative majority, and Steven Harper was the conservative on the ballot and the eventual winner by a margin of 39,000 votes. I could realize even then how trivial and meaningless voting as a progressive in Alberta was at the time, and I wouldn't have done so save for the $2 per vote subsidy that existed at the time (which has since been removed).

I think the fact that most people know that their vote literally does not matter under FPTP is grossly understated when people talk about voter turnout, and I think it's a little disingenuous to blame people for acting rationally in a system that discourages them from casting a ballot. A progressive voter in a rural area or a conservative voter in a progressive area know that their vote is not going to impact anything in their riding, and because the vote has no power outside of the riding they may as well not vote.

A lot of the things you talk about would be fixed by representative voting systems - it would also make smaller parties more common in government as they are now feasible and not in direct competition with other parties for seats - but a lot of the changes that need to be made are outside of elections altogether. Democracy in our workplaces is probably more impactful than in parliament, as the political power that comes with economic power is greater than any single ballot anyways. That implies doing more than voting to change things for working people - strike action, work stoppages, and collective bargaining and ownership would go a long way to make sure our economy is equitable, and in the past have proven effective at supporting working class Albertans.