This is going to be a short entry but I just wanted to a write a little something.
I don't care why you vote, who you vote for or how you get there. You could drive a Hummer, throwing Styrofoam cups out the window and blasting Miley Cyrus all the way there and vote for anyone. That's cool. You know why? Cause I'm just glad you voted.
But I wanted to explain why voting is important to me.
It wasn't that long ago that someone in my position didn't get to vote in the election. I'm not talking about being a woman. Women had the right to vote in Canadian elections in 1919. What is more disturbing to me is knowing that it wasn't until 1960 that aboriginals finally got the right to vote. In fact, before 1960, if a native person wanted to vote they had to give up their treaty rights and their Indian Status to do so.
I listen to music from the 1960s! I watch shows from the 1960s! I own CLOTHES from the 1960s! The 1960s was not that long ago. It is insane to me that within many of my relative's lifetimes, they were legally not allowed to vote.
Why is voting important to me? Besides all the obvious reasons, it's because I know that it wasn't that long ago when my family and ancestors was denied the right to cast a ballot. Denied the right to control their future. How many people's voices were lost in every election before 1960? How many chose to have their voices heard and lost their treaty rights to do so?
