DEAR CANADA:

For those of you who dislike Harper more than you like any particular party, check out this site that uses a prediction model to tell you which party in your riding is best positioned to defeat the Conservative candidate. All you do is enter your postal code.

www.projectdemocracy.ca

Check it out!

GUELPH — They crept along walls, hid behind concrete planters and trees, tiptoed over university grounds, and merrily crossed one of Guelph’s busiest streets — all several hundred of them in their blazing Canadian red and white colours.

And when the crowd reached its destination overlooking the Delta Guelph Hotel and Conference Centre, they sang O Canada and shouted a non-partisan message intended for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “Surprise! Youth are voting.” They waved at the prime minister’s bus below.

On the occasion of Harper’s campaign stop in Guelph Monday, a group of University of Guelph students used social media channels to get up a huge crowd — a crowd whose numbers were difficult to estimate, but which could have numbered well over 500.

It was not a protest, not a demonstration, but rather billed as a vote mob. Their message wasn’t delivered in anger, nor was it tied to any political party’s platform. The sight of them playfully singing, chanting and swaying, with much theatricality, caught the national media accompanying Harper off guard.

“What we have right here is a surprise party for Stephen Harper,” flash mob organizer Gracen Johnson told a number of reporters who wondered over in the rain to witness the mass spectacle. “We heard he was coming to Guelph and we wanted to throw him a surprise, because typically people don’t think that youth vote. We are definitely voting.”

The students gathered in the centre of campus at around 4 p.m., where they rehearsed their action and went over some ground rules. If any of them were to shout slogans or hurl verbal abuses, the entire mob was directed to sit down, stare at the offender and shout, Bronx-style, “Get outta here.”

“We are not fighting for anything, not protesting anything,” organizer Yvonne Su told the crowd, explaining that protestors generally want something that they don’t have. “We already have it — we have the vote.”

Su and Johnson said students have jobs, they pay taxes and they contribute fully to society. And while there may be a popular perception that they don’t care enough about politics to vote, this group of students was there to change that perception. Students do care about their country’s future and want to see positive change. They are well educated, active in their communities and ready and able to mobilize to bring about change.

Many said that thanks to online social networking, their message will go across the country and inspire other students to vote, and to show politicians they are voting.

Why vote? Because everything matters.

*Note: this is not a politically neutral post, so I welcome the counterargument of anyone who would like to share. 

Stephen Harper speaking at an anti-same sex marriage rally in 2005.  He goes on to discuss "Canadian values", which he suggests do not support same sex marriage. 

In response to Rick Mercer's rant about low youth voter turnout, students at the University of Guelph give him this shout out. Presenting the UofG VOTE MOB featuring the music of Florence + the Machine. Enjoy!

One final Rick Mercer rant urging Canada's youth to go to the polls on May 2nd:

Canada Watches Its Democracy Erode

from the Australian

‎"Little wonder Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin describes the government's "arc of duplicity" as "remarkable to behold". What remains unclear is whether this adds up to an indictment of Canadians' indifference to democratic rights being curtailed or of the opposition parties, which have failed to harness the silent majority's outrage."

Read the rest at: 

Let's re-invigorate the student vote!!!

http://www.facebook.com/studentvote http://twitter.com/#!/studentvote http://www.flickr.com/photos/studentvote http://www.youtube.com/studentvote http://www.studentvote.ca/ Pledge to vote by RSVPing to the facebook event: 

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109492489134061