Last week, there was an election at my college for one of the two student reps on our Board of Governors, which is basically the highest decision-making committee of our school. Having beeen heavily involved in my school over the last year, I saw myself as one of the best candidates for this position. Out of five people running, only three of us had shown some previous commitment to the school. However, it was not one of us who won. Actually, to win this election, the new student rep had put up a picture of a "hot" girl in underwear.

Although this is only a smaller size election, I feel like it shows the problems in a democratic system where it is not the most competent person who gets elected, but rather the one who is the most competitive and ready to do anything to win. The students at my school didn't put any time into thinking about how competent this person was. They voted for the girl in a bra.

To me this shows the lacks in all democratic systems. Instead of taking the time to think about who is the most competent leader, in terms of ideas and commitment, we choose to vote for the candidate who seems the most appealing at that moment. In the actual Canadian elections, how many people will vote for Harper, based solely on the fact that he gave us a "gift" by lowering taxes, without looking at the consequences of his economical decisions. Or be offended by the fact that he refused to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People or that he refused to make any real commitment to stop climate change and other envirnmental problems. Barely anyone takes the time to make an informed vote.

Yet again, wouldn't this be one of the most important decisions we have to make? Governments have a huge amount of power and have the ability of drastically changing how we live. Instead of voting just for whoever, why don't we vote for people who have real ideas. And instead of having campaigns that only bring down other parties, why don't parties show off their ideas for change and for innovation. Why can't they come up instead with ideas to improve ou country. An then again, when a party does have such an idea, why can't we take the time to listen to them instead of focusing solely on taxes. Wake up!!! taxes help make our economy more stable. Government intervention in our economy help us avoid such disasters as we have seen in the US.

All this to say that we should be more aware of who we elect. Lets stop electing someone only because their promises sem more appealing, but rather lets elect the most competent person. Lets elect someone who will make out of Canada a coutry that we can be proud of.