Citizen voter: ‘People are not able to disagree anymore’

Westboro resident and uOttawa student Brendan Saunders hasn’t voted before, but is planning to do so this election. Photo by Bruce Deachman /POSTMEDIAArticle content

As the federal election campaign picks up speed, the Citizen’s Bruce Deachman has been asking Ottawa residents to share, in their own words, some experiences and thoughts on voting. Today: Brendan Saunders, of Westboro, explains his dilemma when it comes to voting:

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“I’ve never voted before, but I’m planning to this election. I didn’t vote in the provincial election because I didn’t feel compelled to.

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“The main factors contributing to me deciding how I’ll vote are education and health care. Greater access to health care and health services. I don’t know if I’m just in a state of cognitive dissonance, but honestly, I’m not too concerned with the U.S. stuff.

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“I’m 21 and a student at uOttawa, and something I’ve noticed among my peer group in particular is that things are highly politicized these day; however no one is actually advocating for just genuine civic engagement. So I don’t engage in politics in a way that is actually prompting me to take action. I think that I sometimes intentionally engage with politics in a very superficial way, more for entertainment than anything else.

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“So much of our general understanding and general discourse around politics is centred on social media, and unfortunately, things are so polarized these days. And I have a deep confliction with this as a young person, because I think I should be engaged with my society. I should have a desire to vote and do my due diligence as a citizen, to have my say.

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“However, one of the things I attended was the general assembly for the student union at the university, to ask them and make a point about why the provincial election was not advertised at the university. And I see that as a big problem: there’s this anti-democratic involvement ideology permeating through students these days.

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“I’ve had to go to great efforts to seek out people that I can discuss these types of things with at the level of understanding I want. And some people are highly volatile — you say one wrong thing, and then you no longer can have a discussion. And I think that it’s a big problem — people are not able to disagree anymore.”

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