Last Updated on: 22nd September 2015, 05:01 pm
There’s a federal election coming up, Canada! Perhaps you’ve heard about it. But what you may not have heard are the following few things that might fall under the category of handy to know.
1. Some genius decided that the Thanksgiving weekend would be a swell time to hold all of the advance polls. They take place October 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. That should be fine. It’s not as though people will be busy with a holiday or anything. Yes you can vote at your local returning office pretty much whenever you’d like, but A: not everyone knows that and B: some of them aren’t exactly what you’d call conveniently located.
2. Some genius (perhaps the same one as above) decided once again that voting technology that’s accessible to the blind and other disabled Canadians won’t be necessary, so be prepared to use that stupid thing with the holes in it and never know for certain that your vote counts or to sign your dignity away and have a sighted person come to your rescue. Thanks, country.
3. Kitchener friends, all of the ridings are different. Pretty sure this is the case in other places, but I’m staring right at an article about it and Carin and I live here, so we’re sticking to KW for now. Here’s a brief description of what’s going on by way of the CBC, which in spite of the best efforts of Stephen Harper somehow still exists.
■The new riding, Kitchener South – Hespeler, encompasses the south end of Kitchener and north end of Cambridge. It’s made up of chunks from the ridings of Kitchener-Conestoga, Cambridge, and a small piece from Kitchener Centre
■ Kitchener Centre, which encompasses most of central Kitchener, has shrunk slightly from the west and south ends, and grown slightly to the north.
■Waterloo, previously known as Kitchener-Waterloo, has shrunk slightly on the south end of its border
■Kitchener-Conestoga, which encompasses much of Waterloo Region’s rural townships, has shrunk to accomodate Kitchener South – Hespeler and expanded slightly into Kitchener Centre and Waterloo’s former western territory.
■Cambridge, which covers Cambridge south of Highway 401 and the township of North Dumfries, has expanded south into the County of Brant, while losing a north end to Kitchener South – Hespeler
That’s all for now, but we like talking about elections here so there will almost certainly be more to come.
Oh, and remember to get out and vote, even if you’re voting Conservative. Just because I want to punch you for that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your rights.