civic duty

okay. i have a confession. this year, i know woefully little about the folks in my current riding.

i know that the liberal is bill graham, i know that only because whenever i see a sign i think 'geeze i'm glad i'm not a polititian with that name". i hasten to point out here that i don't for a second think that bill graham and billy graham have anything in common (past their names), i just think it would be an unfortunately name to have when running for a seat in the house.

i don't know the ndp person's name (which is particularily bad, since i'll likely be voting for him) but i do know that i will recognize it on the ballot since my neighbour has an ndp sign up.

i haven't a clue who my conservative candidate is, i can only hope it isn't someone i vote for by accident.

it really is embarassing.

okay, some quick internet research has showed me that i am in the riding of "toronto centre" which happens to be riding 200.

cbc has a listing of all the ridings and their candidates, i should have known they'd come to my rescue.

but that doesn't change the fact that i am completely unengaged in this election, even though it terrifies me (all this talk of a conservative majority is making me consider moving to antarctica) and i am passionate about the outcome. part of it is the whole 'new city' thing. and part of it, honestly, is the 'big city' thing. i am so out of touch with my community here. i need to do something about that. one of the things about toronto is that i can feel completely anonymous, which is nice sometimes, but can lead to a bit of apathy at other times.

so today i think i'll spend some time examining what the issues are in my riding and who is saying what about what they'll do. i don't imagine it will change how i will vote, i will still vote ndp i imagine, but at least i'll feel like a bit less of a knob.

by the way, my ndp candidate is michael shapcott, now, if only i can manage to remember the name.