On election day this year, like millions of Canadians, I dutifully cast my ballot. I always vote. So does my wife and my three boys. There is something not exactly holy but certainly “spiritual” about it all. It is a real privilege to be able to participate. I have visited over the years a couple of countries, notably Cuba and The Peoples Republic of China that do not have a democratic form of government. It doesn’t make them evil, but I have a very firm belief that democracy is by far the better way to go. That is why I vote so I can have a say in who runs our lives.

Canadians wanted a Liberal government and what had been a real desire for change was satisfied by the Liberal leadership change to Mark Carney. He saved the Liberals from oblivion. Carney was helped by Pierre Poilievre of the Conservatives who became easy to dislike.

You don’t expect emotion to be part of that actual voting process but at the site of voting it was certainly there for me. I felt it.

It was raining hard when we went to vote early Wednesday morning in Paradise. We had a fairly long walk from our car across the parking lot. On the way to the building in the rain was a young mother with her infant child strapped in her arms. There was no baby carriage or pram, as the English say. It was a mom going to vote and carrying her child. It was so nice. That woman obviously relished the privilege of democracy. A decision to take your baby out voting with you on a dreary rainy morning says much.

In the building itself, which was the Double Ice Complex in Paradise, we dutifully presented our voting cards and our ID’s and were directed to the proper room and proper tables. I wondered about those people actually working in the election room and helping with the voting process. When I was a young boy both my mom and dad used to get work on election day. Mom was paid as a scrutineer. That was someone who worked in the voting hall helping people vote and going through the process. I know scrutineer was a very specific job but all people working in the process in those days were known as scrutineers. They were mostly paid by the government but not all.

Dad was a car driver for the Liberals. He picked up what had been identified as Liberal voters and drove them to the polls on election day to make sure they voted. Identifying the vote and moving it on election day is still the key to victory in politics. We were a Liberal family. Driver was a paid position and it was a day’s work for someone who really needed to supplement their income. That has changed now or at least some of it has. On the day before election day, we received a card from our candidate reminding us of where we had to vote and asking us if we needed transportation to the polls. I don’t know if driving is still a paid position or is now volunteer.

Despite the rain, voting business at the polling station appeared to be brisk judging by the number of cars in the parking lot at 9:30 a.m. on the day of the election, especially it being a rainy day. I saw one person in a wheelchair and another in a walker. There were some very old people there as well. They weren’t voting in their first election for sure. There were also some young people there probably on their way to work. We all have differing views of young adults but seeing them in an election line-up is an “out of context’’ thing. Hooray for them.

The whole voting thing, taken as a unit, had an inspiring quality to it. Voting is important to me, but I didn’t realize how important it was to so many others. I had the feeling of being involved with something more important than myself. Did I lose my vote? That was expression my grandfather used if you voted for a losing candidate. You were said to have “lost” your vote. It was an old way of looking at things. Even now if you vote you can’t lose your vote. You are part of a very special event in which the process is the winner. The candidate I voted for won the election. He was the winner, and I was a winner. If he had lost the election, then I was still a winner. That is what it makes it so wonderful and is part of being Canadian.

You can contact Jim Furlong at [email protected]