Advanced polling for our federal elections is already underway and it seems, at least by the polls, that the incumbent government might just sneak past with a victory. Without taking sides, I think the victory would probably have more to do with a lack of serious options rather then the governance of the 'defending champions'.

A Canada Election study indicates that almost the entire decline (~10%) in voter turnout over the last 15 years is due to the 18-24 age group. This is unalarming, though, and the trend has been seen in many countries across the globe.

However, at this moment, we stand at a very important juncture in time. The sub-prime mortgage fiasco accompanied by the credit crunch in US has had its fallouts in Canada as well. Canadian dailies are filled with news on this. The manufacturing slump in Ontario has to be dealt with as well. Unfortunately, Stephen Harper has no definite policy to deal with the economic crises.

These crises has made voting even more important. Every person has a social responsibility to vote. If we don't exercise this franchise, we lose the right to complain.