Vote mob and student turnout

The vote mob hit the U of C campus today. While the whole flash mob thing isn’t quite as cool and ground breaking as it used to be when they first started happening it is cool to see a bunch of students getting together and very loudly being excited about voting.

This election has been less than inspiring for the large part and living in Calgary you go into the polls knowing the Conservative candidate will win handily but that isn’t the point. It is about giving students the feeling that their vote is going somewhere — even if it’s just $1.75 — and that they are a part of this process and their voices need to be heard.

No one will give students a voice except us and we do have a lot of things that should be on our mind. We have piles of student debt — yes the federal government does play a role in this — and we would like to get jobs of some kind when we graduate. If the whole civic responsibility thing and the fact that it’s really very easy to go and vote — it takes about two minutes — isn’t enough then maybe the challenges that we face now and will face when we graduate should be.

Maybe this will inspire a few more students to think about voting, maybe it will make politicians a little more accountable but probably not. Politicians are not be giving us a reason to go out and vote so we need to find our own. I do not feel inspired but I do know this election will effect me. Charismatic politicians come and go, it is our job to bridge the gap. Vote mobs are a positive step in the right direction.