Scare out the vote

So for those of us who live in Canada, we know the rather unexpected results in the recent Canadian election. The liberal and Conservative parties were running pretty much neck and neck right up until election day, but once the vote was fianlly counted, the Liberal party was a good 13% ahead in popular vote.

Even the polsters sat on TV on election night scratching their heads wondering how such a thing could have happened.

The Conservatives, of course, blamed the "Liberal Media"'s frightening the Canadian public by distorting the platform of the Conservative party by say it was too "American", but I think there's probably a little more to it than that. The day before the election was Gay Pride day, and the air was abuzz with people talking about voting the next day... most of us were saying that although we weren't happy with the performace of the Liberal Party, we were too scared of what the Conservative Party would do with our rights if we voted any other way. Many of us voted against our preferred NDP Candidate, Olivia Chow, not becasue we didn't like her or didn't want her to win, but because we didn't want to give the Prime Minister's office to the Conservatives.

with the American election coming up, so you think that the gay vote may be scared enough for their rights and freedoms to mobilize a bit better than they have in the past?

Oh, and here's a cool article on the subject...

http://www.365gay.com/opinion/Eleanor/Eleanor.htm

I certainly hope so! Perhaps it's the particular circles I run in, but I don't know anyone who's NOT planning on voting. Even young people who are voting in their 1st Presidential election are afraid of what might happen if they don't vote. Particularly after the debacle over the last election, people are realizing that voting actually does make a difference. This election, more than any other in my lifetime, makes each vote count.