The Canadian way of voting

Amid this wild ride of an election campaign, I'm beginning to wonder if the American system of voting for your local representative and the leader of the country separately isn't the way to go.

Our riding is an interesting case of campaigning. We have four candidates: Conservative, Liberal, Green and NDP.

The Conservative candidate has come of arrogant and scripted. This riding has been held by the Conservatives forever so it seems the Conservatives don't even feel the need to campaign.

The Liberals, on the other hand, have never even had a chance. The local candidate comes across as uninformed and bumbling, answering most questions by referring constituents to the national Liberal website for answers. The Liberals are giving almost no effort to campaigning here.

The NDP aren't even showing up. Literally. Although there is apparently an official name running for the NDP in our riding, there are absolutely no signs, and no one showed up for the local debates, and no one gave a reason for not showing up. It is obvious there is a name in name only, just so the NDP can say they are running in every riding.

The Green candidate is the only local candidate who is actually making any real effort. This is likely because we are one of the few ridings across the country the Green party actually has a chance of winning. There are more Green party signs than any other party, and the local candidate has made a great showing at the debates, coming off as informed, passionate and articulate.

I am undecided as a voter. Of course, in light of the above opinion (which is also the generally agreed upon consensus,) there should be no contest. Only one local representative has even showed an iota of interest in actually running in this riding. And in the Canadian system, we are supposed to vote for the local candidate and not the party, or its leader.

But what, then, are the implications? What if I don't agree with much of the party platforms? What if I don't think their leader would make an appropriate leader of our country and representative on the world stage? Sure, it is easy to say "vote for the person" when in the grand scheme of things the Green party doesn't have a chance of forming the government. But what if voting for the only "caring" candidate did mean a vote for a party or leader you don't agree with?