i'm just saying

If huge numbers of Canadians are not around at Christmastime, that's one thing. And I realize that my perspective is different because I don't celebrate Christmas. But I don't come from Mars, I come from a country that goes insane during the Christmas season, and I still have trouble envisioning people actually getting too busy to vote.

When discussing the voter intimidation and disincentives in Ohio in the 2004 US "election," Canadians told me it takes them 10 or 20 minutes to vote. We can all find 20 minutes. We're not talking 20 minutes a day, just 20 minutes, once.

And how much time does anyone really spend reading up on the issues? If you follow the news all year, you probably continue to follow it during the holiday season. If you don't, then the holidays aren't making any difference.

Some people said voting was just one more thing to do when they should be spending time with their family. One more thing to do? You are talking about voting as "one more thing to do"? That's positively shameful. Watch one less sitcom, and you've got the time.

"I don't like any of the candidates," "No one is doing anything," "They're all crooks and liars": those are different issues. It may be true, it may be an excuse for apathy, it may be some of both. But if that's your beef, it's true no matter when the election is held.

This man agrees with me, and he knows a lot more about it!

If you believe the bull-roar coming out of Ottawa these days you'd think a federal election campaign during the Christmas holidays is like poking an ice-pick into one ear and out the other.

The operative word in that sentence is "Ottawa." Who else but the politicians, their aides and the Ottawa press corps regards a Christmas election as a thing of horror?

I welcome a Christmas election. A good dose of mud slinging would be a welcome break from the saccharine sentiment and suicidal commercialism that have infiltrated, saturated and ruined what used to be and what should be a short and simple winter celebration of joy.

A Christmas election campaign seems to me like a fine diversion from a perverted Christmas holiday campaign that now begins the day after Halloween. We're barely halfway through November, the Grey Cup's still weeks away, there's no snow on the ground where I live, and already three times I've had to withstand the vicious assault of The Little Drummer Boy.

With a Christmas election campaign I'd have an excuse to say, "Sorry, can't be merry today, must read up on the issues." It's like the wonderful English expression: "Thank God the sun has gone down and I don't have to go out and enjoy it."

He goes on to talk about Ottawa. I don't pretend to know diddly about Ottawa, but it sure sounds a lot like Washington DC. Later, he writes:

I mean, how disruptive is a federal election for the average non-politician, non-press corps Canadian? One day you take 20 minutes off to visit a polling booth and mark your X upon a ballot. Then you go home for an early scotch and an early dinner.

It's not as if we're cruelly inundated with extra election news at Christmastime. There are always pages of murders and rapes and wars and tortures and sports scores to reward our hungry Yuletide eyes. What makes Christmas any different? Someone once said you don't get fat from eating all the rich food between Christmas and New Year's; you get fat from eating all the rich food between New Year's and Christmas. [Martin O'Malley CBC column here.]

Well, call me a clueless immigrant, but I still don't get it. Could this be the famous Canadian complacency I've heard so much about?