If you don't vote, you give up your right to complain. If you aren't willing to contribute to the democratic process at election time, how can you justify complaints about the outcome?
Provincially, the voter turnout dropped to a dismal 50 per cent last time British Columbians went to the polls, in 2009 - a drop of eight full percentage points from the previous election. Richmond Centre had the second lowest!
While millions around the world fervently wish - and tens of thousands die - for what we enjoy in Canada, we have lost our understanding of the difference between our rights and our responsibilities in a democracy.
To put it simply: our rights for ourselves are what we put at risk by failing to maintain our responsibilities to each other.
It's easy to blame the politicians - their equivocation, their disingenuousness, their self-serving disregard for the citizens who place their trust in them.
But that's just another excuse. They wouldn't get away with their questionable antics without the complicity of an apathetic citizenry. Our disregard for the role expected of them results in their disregard for exercise of that role.
Get out and vote on Tuesday (or earlier, at the advance polls), or voice your complaints about the outcome to the only person who is really responsible: yourself.
