Nathan Lawr on Canadian Elections

From Nathan Lawr's Myspace Blog - his suggestions for a brand new Canadian Political System, based on April Wine songs.

"With a federal election looming and the party leaders jockeying for our sympathy and understanding, there has been much ink and breath spent on determining just how the average Canadian will cast their ballot.

All five party leaders are falling over themselves to seem like "normal," "reasonable" people, just like us.  To say nothing of Stephen Harper's creepy "I'm just a fathering kind-of-guy" ads and other blatant attempts to appeal to the most uninformed morons in the country (I thought we were electing people to govern us, not spend time playing piano with us, am I wrong?), I for one am already tired of this pandering to lowest common denominator.
Thus, I have come up with a solution for the party leaders.  If Jack, Gilles, Stephen, Stephane, and Elizabeth really want to appeal to "average" Canadians they must place themselves in a forum that "average" Canadians really understand, namely: Canadian Idol.

I suggest each of the party leaders pick their favourite April Wine song (come on, how's that for average and Canadian?), and belt it out to the best of their ability on prime-time television.  Then, "average" Canadians can vote on the person they think is the most charismatic and charming, and who possesses the best pipes, which, let's face it, really come in handy during Question Period.  Not only does this approach satisfy democratic ideals of "one vote-one person," it also allows the laziest of the population to vote at their convenience.  All you have to do is pick up the phone!  Hell, you don't even have to talk to anyone, you can just text your pick!  This eliminates any hassle connected to showing up to vote in person, which, as everyone knows, is practically a waste of time.

So I say, the hell with any kind of civic responsibility we all may have  So what if voting and paying some attention to current issues is the most minimal obligation we have to our democratic system.  Screw the fact that we are privelged to live in a country like Canada at all.  We must make voting and the whole electoral process much more entertaining.  Plus, think of all the albums and spin-offs...we could be milking this election for while yet.
Get on the phone and vote!"