“I have had it up to here with you guys” he said, gesturing emphatically. “I am not voting for anyone! You guys come here at election time asking for a vote and then nothing for four years!” As I knocked on thousands of doors in Don Valley West, I heard a version of this lament far too many times.
I understand it. I feel that same frustration with our political system. How did I become one of the “you guys”? I knew at the outset that politicians rank at the very bottom of almost any “trust scale”. I’ve now learned that by throwing my hat in the ring, I became a “politician”.
This is not a column full of sweetness and sentiment about the good people running for office and the virtue of parliamentary democracy. NO. In fact, a good deal of the cynicism that so many feel is frankly justified. Just saying.
I wanted to run a campaign that might influence how things are done. We tried to use our campaign to elevate the voices of people who are often unheard – seniors, young people marginalized from their rights, those struggling with mental health challenges, those living with disabilities, people in communities marginalized from their rights, newcomers.
A campaign could be a meeting in the public square where everyone’s voices are respected, ideas are exchanged and the people are heard – before every election. Wouldn’t that be refreshing? Campaigns could be about change. If not about changing government, then about improving our lives. Isn’t that why all political parties make all sorts of policy platform promises? In fact, isn’t that what politics is supposed to be about?
We could influence and create change as we campaign. I tried to do that. For instance, we connected parts of our riding, as disparate as could be, so that they could support each other – on tenants’ issues, small businesses in one area, supporting a grassroots group in another. We tried to build community as we campaigned.
Thorncliffe Park is an amazing community in a corner of Don Valley West. There is no doubt at all that the people of Thorncliffe Park have been held back. Institutions like Metrolinx have mistreated this community. There is a huge lack of trust between those 30,000 residents and the political process. It is why we created the Thorncliffe Declaration as a tool of accountability for the community to use should I be elected – and if I’m not elected, it will be a tool to hold whoever is accountable. An attempt to begin to rebuild trust.
In a strange way elections are not about politicians. I don’t think the race in Don Valley West is about me. It’s about “us”. The broader “us”, across the whole riding.
On average nearly half of eligible voters don’t vote. In 2007, 52% of eligible Ontarians voted; in 2011, 48%; in 2014, 51%. In 2018, 58% percent of eligible voters cast a ballot – a nearly 20-year high.
Most of those marginalized from their rights dont vote. Like the man at the door, people who have lost all hope that things can be different. Its time. If you are one of those people, I challenge you. Find the courage to hope. If you all voted, you would change the course of the election, and if you voted in your own interest, you would influence the path of equity and change in our Province.
You might feel better too because – as young people have taught me – action, even a small act, is an antidote to despair.
Irwin Elman