NOTE: Should someone stumble here from HERENB or one of the other election blogs. Let me reiterate. I do not have an election blog. I have opinions and commentary on my blog when the whim strikes me from the perspective of the every day voter, from my demographic. I do not claim to know the ins and outs of politics, nor will you find them on here. You will find comments related to some marketing issues with the NB election and general commentary on the election. So having said that; 

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks talking to people about the election. And I’m discovering a trend. When I ask them about the election, these are the types of responses I’m receiving;

“I just look at the current government and decide if I like how things were and if I did, I vote for them again, if I didn’t, I vote for someone else to see if someone new can make it different. Sometimes just having someone new gives new hope”

“I just vote for the lesser of the two evils”

“I’ve known *insert candidate name* for years, we played *insert sport* together or our kids played together and so I’m voting for him.

“I don’t really follow local politics, it’s small potatoes, I prefer federal”

 ”I have no idea who to vote for. I’ll probably guess at the polls.”

“I’m not planning on voting. I know it’s not responsible, but I just never see the point in it”

“I listen to the campaign and decide from there who to vote for”

then there are the stereotypical responses such as;

“I don’t like the *insert political party*  and I don’t like *insert party leader* and if they win, our province will fall into chaos.” and other similar variations. 

When I asked them about issues like orimulsion fiasco, they knew what it meant now because of the campaign but most said they didn’t really understand it before. I asked about other issues involving senior care, child care, repatriation, etc. they knew only the barest of details and most admitted they didn’t really follow anything through the year. The items that everyone did bring up were gas prices and energy prices. Or more recently the insurance aspect all over again. These were all educated people with good careers. They care about their province and what happens, but there’s a disconnect. Something is breaking in the system. Are the school or our parents responsible for instilling our civic responsibility towards politics? If so, is it failing? I know I never learned anything about politics in school after grade 8 that were related to Canadian politics. And as I mentioned before, it wasn’t something discussed publically with my family. I wonder how much the polls would change if those people, myself included, actually really paid attention throughout the year about issues, rather than wait for election time.

There were a few people that I spoke to (all men I should add) that said they did follow all the issues, watched CPAC, knew the issues in detail to discuss them, etc. But they were far outnumbered by those who didn’t. I didn’t obviously do a formal survey, but a *random* sampling of those I knew well as friends, as well as casual acquaintances, and even a few strangers, all ranging in demographics from young to senior, men and women.

I have noticed that as we get closer to the election that people are starting to pay attention more. As I read in the paper the other day, that it’s been a relatively ho hum campaign so far, but now that some controversy is stirring up with insurance and the “grits on attack”, people seem to be talking more. 

I think Canadians as a whole are a bit more passive about politics than, let’s say our American counterparts. But maybe it’s gone too far, in that we really have a multititude of everyday voters who aren’t really interested in the details or the issues, only in the end result of “what will it do for me?”