If you live in Canada, today is a big day. Election day!

Cue the lights, cue the music, cue the voter turnout!

Voter apathy is a huge problem here in Canada. The last election had incredibly low turnout at the polls, especially among young people.

I’m not going to go into all the reasons why people don’t vote and my views on how the electoral system could be made better because, well, there is a time and a place for that, and I’m pretty sure that time and place was the political science paper I wrote in first year.

There are a few points, however, that I would like to make about voting.

Point One: There are people around the world right now who are quite literally dying for the opportunity to do what we’re doing here for the third time in six years. Yes, that is an awful lot of elections to have, but isn’t it better than the alternative? Shouldn’t we be enjoying our democratic rights instead of wishing we didn’t have to fulfill them?

Point Two: One of the many reasons I practice yoga is to practice change. There are things in myself and things in the world I’m not all that fond of, and when I practice with dedication, both on and off the mat, I am working towards bettering those things. Voting is part of that. Yes, that’s right, I just made the yoga=voting connection, and I’m not turning back.

Point Three: Know what else is about change? Theatre. Art. We create to make our “what-ifs” a reality and see what they could become. We create to explore where we’re going, where we’ve been, and to envision a better world. (Side note that if you are interested in arts and culture in this election, there is a great post by Rebecca Coleman outlining the arts and culture platforms of the major parties here.)

So vote and speak for your vision of a better world.