On October 10, every citizen of Ontario may
exercise his privilege to vote.
Who are you going to vote for? The candidate
who is the most popular? The candidate who has the most signs
posted? The candidate who comes from your ethnic background? The
candidate who will do the most for you?
Maybe we don’t think too deeply about this.
We’ve become cynical. After all, we say, all the political
parties are the same. They are all in it for themselves.
But I would like to suggest a few guidelines
that may en-courage us to take our respon-sibility more
seriously.
1. Check out the smaller political parties.
Often, we limit our range to the big three: Liberal, ndp and
pc. But have we done our homework with some of the smaller,
younger parties and seen what they stand for? People often say
that a vote for a smaller party is a wasted vote. But I would
disagree. If you vote according to your conscience, you have not
wasted your vote. You have exercised your responsibility as a
citizen.
2. What matters more: what’s right or what
works? Are we more eager to vote for a political party that
seeks to govern by principle or one that governs by the pulse or
the whims and wishes of the people? A political party or a
candidate that stands on strong principle and sticks to his
promises is often given more respect (even if he may lose the
election!). It’s not might that makes right, but right that
makes might!
3. What is their stance on moral issues?
Issues in political elections are often dominated by education,
healthcare and the economy. Certainly, these have a moral
element to them. But what is a candidate’s stance on gam-bling,
crime, abortion, marriage and the family, respect for authority,
and so on?
Does it matter? I’d say, yes. Often, those
can-didates/parties who have God’s moral law as their foundation
also govern well with respect to education, healthcare and the
economy.
Justice and righteousness often mean more
than the power given to them.
In short, I will say this: If we want
principled politics, it begins with us. We need principled
voters!
