Warning: Strategic Voting May Damage Your Democracy

The federal Conservatives have just introduced a new bill that would "increase the size of the warnings" on cigarette packages "with newer, stronger images".

It's great to know that the Prime Minister wants to protect Canadians from their own choices by providing them with more information, including graphic images of the potential damage to their lungs and lives. It is said that 37,000 Canadians die prematurely each year as a result of smoking.

Since Mr. Harper and Health Minister Agglukaq have accepted the responsibility of forcing industry to provide this information, I would like to suggest several other info-ops:

• Abortion kills approximately 110,000 Canadians each year. Another 110,000 Canadian women face increased risk of infertility, pelvic inflammation, breast cancer, depression and suicide as a result of making the decision to abort without having all the information. Why not borrow some graphic images from the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform and post them outside every abortion clinic in Canada? Before-and-after pictures of the baby and the latest research on abortion and the breast cancer link may save lives.
• Since "the Harper government is committed to keeping Canadians safe and healthy" (as mentioned in their recent press release) I'm sure they will want to inform Canadians about the dangers of Gardasil. This drug—on which the Conservative government spent $300 million in 2007 and which was supposed to prevent the spread of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) amongst young girls—has been shown to cause deaths and injury in an alarming percentage of those injected (while failing to protect them from most strains of HPV). Girls as young as 9 were given the injections on the assumption that they would be engaging in early promiscuous sex. Certainly warning labels about the dangers of the vaccine and the safe and healthy alternative (abstinence prior to marriage and fidelity within marriage) would have been helpful to these young decision-makers and their parents.
• Canadians also deserve to be warned about the spread of Strategic Voting Disease. Canadian voters afflicted with this communicable disease show symptoms of listlessness, an over-dependence on the mass media and polls, misplaced euphoria and repeated disappointment. The disease can be picked up at local coffee shops or by spending extended periods in front of the TV. In full-blown cases, voters believe they must sacrifice their convictions and vote only for those parties already receiving large amounts of taxpayer funding and media exposure. Canadians deserve to be warned about deceptive advertising claims (now proven false) promising fiscal restraint, protection of the innocent, etc. They also should be warned about the possible side-effects of strategic voting—like oppressive party discipline, endless compromise and misleading rhetoric. When strategic voting reaches epidemic proportions it results in: shortness of detail, abuse of power, cynicism and apathy, a vastly expanded bureaucracy, an increase of public debt and inflation and a destruction of democracy. Affected voters no longer vote for the person or party that best represents their views but only for the person or party they think has a chance of winning. Few democracies have ever survived an epidemic but some researchers remain optimistic that a steady diet of Truth may yet save ours.

These are just several suggestions. Others could include warnings about the dangers of homosexual sex, lotteries and other gambling venues (hey, how about banning advertisements for gambling?) and the over-dependence on pharmaceuticals and toxic pesticides. Mr. Harper and the Health Minister have a lot of catch-up to do in 2011.