Planet Laurel

Tomorrow — Monday October 26th, 2020 — is #ElectionDay in two Toronto ridings.

Newly elected Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul is running to win the Toronto Centre seat vacated by former Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau (amidst WE scandal ethics questions) . Annamie is both a brilliant candidate and an excellent choice to represent this, her home riding.

Photographer Sasha Zavarella is running in York Centre, where another Canadian National Party Leader — this time Peoples Party of Canada’s Maxime Bernier.

Neither of these by-Elections will change the balance of power in Ottawa.

That means voters are free to vote for what they want — they don’t have to worry vote splitting will result in the party they fear winning majority power.

Since by-Elections historically have poor attendance at the best of times (and a pandemic is surely not one of those times!) fewer votes cast means these votes will have more weight. This is a brilliant opportunity for voters in these formerly safe seats whose votes never elect anyone to cast a vote that may be heard. Greens across Canada are rooting for Annamie, because the sooner our leader can take her seat in Parliament the better we’ll be able to hold the government to account.

It is important to remember the other big parties “whip” MP votes, which means their MPs represent their party first, because, if they don’t, they can lose party support which invariably means losing their seat. Whipped votes used to be a rarity, but in recent times they have become the default for NDP, Liberal and Conservative MPs.

Green MPs differ from other major party MPs because first and foremost they represent the constituents of their ridings. If there is a conflict between what is best for their riding or what’s best for the party, the best interest of their constiuents come first. Always.

If you live in either of these two ridings, your vote for Annamie or Sasha will mean something. We’ve seen what an impact Mike Schreiner has made as a single Green MPP. Electing another Liberal will just be more of the same old. But Greens will always make a difference.

And we can give our votes more power if we can convince our friends and families to vote too.

Even in our terribly unrepresentative voting system, voting is incredibly important. Even our vote is unlikely to change the outcome, it puts our choice on the record.

If you live in one of these ridings, please vote tomorrow. (And make sure to wear a mask when you do!) It is so important — and perhaps even more important:

VOTE FOR WHAT YOU WANT.

(Even if you don’t want what I want.)

If enough of us vote for what we want, we might just get it. And Annamie has an excellent chance of winning this one.

So get out and Vote!