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Sounds: nothing, damnit
Thoughts: The worst part is that The East doesn't have a clue why this would be an issue.
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28.06.2004 - 20:04
Western Alienation Reinforced by Democracy
I live in a big freaking country. I live in the last of four and a half time zones in a big freaking country. On election day, in my big freaking country, the polls on the eastern side (where most of the population resides) close about an hour and a half before the polls on the western side (where I live).
I hopped on the CBC website to watch the results as they came in, since I did my civic duty this morning so that I could stay late and work this evening. I have never voted on this side of the country, therefore I did not know what to expect.
The first thing I see when I get to the website is this in the headline. Exciting, yes? Maybe you don't agree but whatever, that's not the point. I switch to the 'live' provincial results breakdown, to see who is doing what in this new province of mine. Except that the polls here only just closed. Results? 0. ZERO. NO POLLS REPORTING. The prime minister has already been elected, and we've got no fucking polls reporting. How does this seem fair? By the time our votes have even begun being counted, everything has been decided. People in Atlantic Canada have gone to bed, because there isn't any point in watching anymore.. and I still don't know who won my fucking riding.
Western Canada wants to care, people... we really do. But when you live in the last time zone in a big freaking country, its hard to remember why you should. The mountains keep the snow away, so there's no common climatic experience, so all of your damn commercials about snow and cold winters mean nothing to us. All of the head offices for our National Television are Back East, so prime time coverage happens in the early afternoon for us. And you even decide elections for us, before we've even begun counting.
The great controversy this year was that election results would begin to be announced before the polls closed, as it was deemed unconstitutional to keep it a secret... or something like that. I say good. Maybe we can stick it to the East and try and fix things by watching the start of the results before making a run for the final hour and a half of voting. Leave us out of your democratic process, will you?
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