By Aly Kamadia, Editor-In-Chief of iDose

Pardon the cliché, but what a difference a week can make.

Last week, yours truly wrote, “to the degree that faith could be put into polling, Trudeau and the Liberal Party were currently headed to victory.”

But in the bottom of the 9^th inning, those very same polls currently illustrate a fierce competition between the Conservatives and the Liberals. At the time of this writing (Oct. 15^th, a day prior to publication), a variety of credible polling data outlets show that both parties have virtually an equal chance of winning. Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau also have a much higher chance of forming a minority government than a majority.

Given that this is the final article about the Canadian election that iDose will run before the big day (Monday, Oct. 21^st), I thought I’d throw out four simple ways that you can act on to make a difference. (Yes, even this late in the election cycle!)

1. Reach Out

If you’re reading this, you’re likely going to be voting if you haven’t already. But given that more than three out of ten Canadians do not vote, why not reach out to a few people who need an extra budge?

2. Vote with your brain

I’m not one to argue against unchangeable realities. It’s not only completely useless to vote for a candidate who has less of a chance of winning than you hitting next week’s hundred million dollar lottery. The fact is, this kind of voting can be counterproductive.

By choosing to vote for a candidate who has no chance of winning, ask yourself: does this increase the odds of my least favorite candidate to win?

3. Volunteer!

There are LITERALLY no political campaigns in the country that will turn you away from door knocking or making phone calls. Campaigns need all the help they can get on the weekend before voting day, and even on voting day.

Volunteering might give you a sense of fulfillment. And if you choose to do it in a swing riding (where there’s actual uncertainty about who’s going to win), you’ll have a deeper impact.  

4. It’s not only about election day

Finally, we all know that politicians love to come around every few years at election time, BEG for your vote, BEG for your money, discretely take your personal and household data (shhhhh!!) etc. And after election day, poof – they disappear faster than the speed of light. (186 282 miles per second, in case you’re wondering).  

Only to reappear, of course, come next election (if they’re running).

Now I’m hardly one of those people who has a delusional notion of what type of people many politicians are.  

In his memoirs, former US Secretary of Defense (Under Bush & Obama) Robert Gates, an astute and distinguished Statesman whom I admire, made a diagnosis that’s worth considering:

Congress is best viewed from a distance—the farther the better—because up close, it is truly ugly. I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.

When I meet with Gates, I’ll press him hard on why he was being so charitable in his description (I kid).

Kidding aside, it isn’t hard to find people who share Gates’ view about many politicians in their home country – Canada is no exception.  

Though you must remember that in democracies, it’s YOUR taxpayer dollars that sign their paychecks. They are YOUR elected representatives, not the other way around. Don’t let their all too often over-inflated egos have you believe otherwise.  

In that sense, whether it’s election time or not, and no matter what level of government (local, provincial or federal), remember that you have every right as a Canadian citizen to be in touch with politicians that are supposed to be representing you (and your town, city, riding etc.). Election time is hardly the only time to have your voice heard.

And who knows, you might actually come across a politician or two who put the country’s interest before their own. After all, people do win the lottery. And as another cliché goes, anything is possible.

Aly Kamadia is Editor-In-Chief of iDose. To read more articles by Kamadia, click here. To read the Editor’s message, click here.