OPINION: Please, get out and vote

Have you registered to vote?

If you haven’t, why not? No, seriously. Why not?

We live in a democracy, and a democracy is not a self-sustaining machine humming quietly in the background while the rest of us get on with our lives. It requires participation. Much like a marriage, you can’t neglect it for four years and then suddenly become outraged because you don’t like what it has become.

Refusing to use your voice is your choice, but let’s not pretend silence and participation are the same thing.

And if there is one election you should never sit out, it is your municipal election.

Municipal government is the government that follows you right up your driveway.

It decides which roads get paved and which continue to rattle your fillings. It deals with garbage, parks, recreation facilities, planning, development, parking, sidewalks, snowplowing, water and sewer rates and, yes, how much of your money disappears into municipal coffers every year.

Yet in the last municipal election, only 32.9 per cent of eligible Ontario voters cast a ballot, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Voter turnout in Rideau Lakes was 32.8 per cent.

Barely one-third.

Think about that. It means roughly seven out of 10 eligible voters did not cast a ballot. Whatever their reasons, the result was the same: The decisions were left to those who did.

Then some of them probably spent the next four years furious about taxes, traffic, development, garbage collection and potholes.

You can bury your head in the sand. That is your right.

Or you can pay attention.

Find out who is running. Ask questions. Read beyond the campaign slogans. Ignore the carefully polished photographs, the cheerful promises and the inevitable declarations about “moving forward together.”

Look at records. Look at judgment. Look at how candidates behave when challenged.

Most importantly, consider their character. The way candidates treat people, handle criticism and conduct themselves under pressure offers a pretty good preview of how they will govern.

Elections should not be popularity contests, and democracy should demand more of us than choosing the name we recognize from the lawn signs.

I feel strongly about this because I know what it means when voting means nothing.

I am an immigrant. Where I come from, voting was largely a sham.

When I became a Canadian citizen and was finally able to cast a meaningful ballot, it was one of the most exciting days of my life.

I was 30 years old and a new mother. I wasn’t voting only for myself. I was voting for my newborn daughter and for the kind of country I wanted her to be proud of.

My first Canadian vote was in a provincial election. After marking my ballot, I slowly walked toward the door, half expecting someone to stop me.

Nobody did.

Nobody asked who I voted for. Nobody told me I had made the wrong choice. Nobody suggested there would be consequences for choosing the wrong candidate.

I simply voted.

That freedom was exhilarating.

Since then, I have voted in every municipal, provincial and federal election. I taught my children that casting a ballot in a free and fair election is an extraordinary privilege denied to far too many and, at the same time, a sacred and solemn responsibility.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

So register. There are multiple ways to vote — take the time to find out how you can make your voice heard in your municipality.

Pay attention.

Ask uncomfortable questions.

Judge the people asking for your trust.

Then vote.

And if you deliberately choose not to?

Fine. That is your democratic right, too.

But when your taxes climb, your road crumbles, your water bill jumps or council approves something that makes your blood boil, remember you were given a voice when it mattered most.

You chose not to use it.

Keep connected to your community and the decisions that shape it. Follow our 2026 municipal election coverage in the Hometown News Election Centre.