What if?
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Posted by A Reservist on January 08, 2021 at 05:58:19:
Having been a Reservist for the past 12 years I have often wondered how an Armed Forces as professional as we in Canada possess can be cut and eviscerated over a period of years without any political fallout. We may all look to our neighbors to the south and envy their support amongst the general population but to do so and wish it were so here is folly. We will never enjoy that much public and government support and we never will. I do believe we can improve our appreciation in parliament though.
As Regular Force members each of you have the right to elect to vote in either the riding where you enrolled or the riding in which your are based. This right is one you have enjoyed for a long time and is very often exercised. It is precisely this right that I believe is at the root cause of our having "no voice" in Parliament. I suggest to all members of the CF (Regular Force) that you may want to consider forgoing this right and deciding to vote where you are based.
Presently we have approximately 60,000 Regular Force Members in Canada. I believe that CF Members have much higher than average voting rate than the rest of society. (We know the value). So we can safely say that we have 60,000 voters in the CF. If we add spouses and members of the DND Public Service we have as a rough estimate 140,000 voters employed on a base or related to married in the military. With our right to vote spread over approximately 300 Federal Ridings we are basically ignored come election time. Both Candidates and Incumbents basically ignore the military vote because they know that the vast majority of the CF Members located at the nearby Base vote at their original home and not the Riding they are in. They ignore you because they can ignore you.
Now consider the situation if all members of the CF opted to vote in their local Riding. Due to Base closures and downsizing the CF is spread over many fewer Bases than just a few years ago. By voting locally the CF would have significant voting impact in several different Ridings. A 30-second study would suggest that CF Members could expect to have significant voter interest in at least 1 Riding in Halifax, Fredericton, Valcartier, Ottawa, Petawawa, Kingston, Trenton, Borden, Winnipeg, Moose Jaw, Edmonton, Esquimalt, and Comox. Of course we have many other Bases but in these Ridings the number of CF pers in comparison with the local population would lead one to suspect that the CF vote would be critical for a local candidate to consider.
If we did this, what could we expect? We could expect that at least the local Member of Parliament owes her/his job to CF members, DND Public Servants, and the spouses of both. That MP might then be expected to take your concerns more seriously. Remember if she/he does not represent you the way you like there is always another election just around the corner. Don't worry about following your MP's voting record too closely. His/her opponent will do that for you at the next debate.
I do not propose for one minute that the CF form a voting "Bloc". What I propose is that each person vote as his/her conscience suggests. Just consider voting where you are based. Lets spread the 140,000 CF votes over 15 ridings instead of 300. Certainly the Government may not owe its job to your vote, but a few Members of Parliament will. Consider how many do now!
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