Yesterday felt more like the day after Thanksgiving than the day of Canada's federal election. Perhaps it's because I don't watch the news anymore, but the campaign just felt like an annoying, boring, change-the-channel month. It came on fast as heck, and now it's over and I have to admit that I'm feeling guilty. I did not vote. I usually do, and I did some platform research online yesterday in preparation for my decision too. And then I got lazy and told myself, our Liberal guy is going to win again, I won't bother voting since I was going to pick him anyway. (On a side note, I'm not always Liberal, but I figured voting Liberal increases the chances of a Harper loss, which I was hoping for.)

Well spank me in the morning, "our Liberal guy" lost our riding by 500 votes. We are now being represented by a Conservative MP. I feel really bad and suddenly I feel like all those American celebrities are biting their tongues because people like me (actually, a LOT of people like me - voter turn out is at a record low in Canada) didn't rock the vote. Not that the Americans even know where our country is located, much less that there was an election. It seems like Canadians care less about this kind of stuff. I just watched Michael Moore's Sicko and it implied that the French government serves its people well because they fear revolution. Maybe we're too polite to cause enough ruckus. Or maybe we need more charismatic party leaders like the poet-slash-candidate Barack Obama. I don't even know all the party leaders. Maybe they need to make sure the PM candidate debates aren't scheduled at the same time as the US VP debates or CSI or something so we'll actually watch.

Okay, no more negativity about the Canadian system. I'll just congratulate our new MP, because I have to say, he did make a stronger effort than any other candidate - he actually came to my door at the beginning of the campaign to meet me. And I promise to vote next time.