Watching CBC's Sunday Report last night. No transcript as usual, so you'll just have to trust me.
The last portion of it was devoted to the intensely troubling (to the CBC, anyway) question of why more young people don't vote.
Exhibit A: Young black woman named Natasha in Pickering, Ont. Why isn't Natasha voting?
None of the parties, it seems, are addressing what she considers to be essential issues. Iraq? Taxes? Integrity in government?
Nope, none of the above. She goes on with the usual litany of "youth-related" demands -- reducing education debt, AIDS, more funding for the arts. She thinks "creative cities" would be nice. And she also wants "funky, refreshing candidates."
Hey, who doesn't? But even allowing for a dearth of those, I would think that all the parties cover her concerns, if only with the standard boilerplate promises.
But what's at the head of the list; the #1 thing she's upset about?
Sidewalks. Freaking sidewalks.
Cut to a shot of a new suburb, which as commonly is the case nowadays, doesn't have sidewalks. They're expensive to put in and maintain, and almost no one uses them.
Natasha thinks that this is the responsibility of the Federal government. The horrifying truth is that probably a couple of the parties would agree.
Thank you, Natasha. Thank you for sitting this one out, and you might want to consider skipping the next two or three.