Jon Stewart said it best on Oct. 15, the day after Canada’s most recent national election: “Conservative party leader Stephen Harper beats Liberal party leader Stephane Dion by a vote of … 7 to 4!”

I’ve actually gotten over the fact that Stephen Harper is still prime minister of Canada.
He still only has a minority government, meaning that his Parliament will still be checked by Liberal, New Democratic and Bloc Quebecois members.

Despite his penchant for Rove-Bush policies and politics, he does seem at least to be on top of Canada’s response to the global financial crisis. He delivered a six-point plan soon after his re-election that included conversations with European Union and G7 nation leaders about how to work together in this rapidly globalizing world.

Bush apparently even gave him a call to congratulate him on his victory.

What really still bothers me about the election is Canada’s historically low voter turnout.

An estimated 59.1 percent of registered voters showed up at the polls this year, only slightly worse than the 60.9 percent turnout for Liberal Paul Martin when he ran for election in 2004.

Now, the 2004 U.S. election turnout was only 56.69 percent, but Canada’s national average is actually 76 percent, making this year’s election dismal in comparison.

It’s strange to think of the national apathy, and, granted, national fatigue, over Canadian politics, when just down south in the States there seems to be a real shift in voting demographics and a surprisingly large number of newly registered voters, mostly incited either in support of or resistance to Barack Obama.

As a Canadian citizen barred from participating in my own country’s national election due to my prolonged U.S. residency, I balk at the thought that people in Canada who could have learned something about Dion’s Green Shift plan or inquired into an alternative for Harper’s foreign policies and come to some kind of conclusion about who they wanted to vote for decided somewhere along the way not to.

Now we’ve just wasted a bunch of money to get another Conservative minority government, which technically was the exact same situation that lead to this election in the first place.
I just don’t get it. What did we hold the election for, if no one was going to vote in it?

The importance of voting may be hard to grasp until you find yourself in a position like mine, where you can’t do it.

I am caught between two countries’ governments and cannot influence either of them.
So please, take a lesson from Canada and a personal plea from me, and vote. Unless you’d like to release the precious little control you have over this world and let other people decide what happens for you.

Look to Canada, and see if you want the same thing to happen in November.