Winston Churchill once said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. The thing about democracy is that it is messy, because it requires citizen participation to work properly. Without an engaged citizenry, democracy can indeed become the worst form of government, where a minority can surreptitiously stall committee work, where the real work of governance is done, and thus justify to the public the necessity of ruling by decree (see Government of Canada 2006-present).

Low voter turnouts only strengthen the core power bases of the traditional, entrenched parties, allowing governments to form with less than 25% support, and cuts off support for new parties, who draw much of their "soft" support from those who, for one reason or another, feel disenfranchised but choose to remain so.

Thus, every person who does not vote is casting a vote for the status quo.

In February of 2010, Frank Graves of EKOS Research stated that if the 18-34 demographic voted en masse, there would be a majority Green government in Canada, but that will never happen, he said, because they don't vote. For whatever reason, and there are many, they feel disengaged from the political process as applied by the traditional, entrenched parties. This is a demographic group that is interested in political life but take a very different approach to engagement. We need to adapt to their way of involvement. Only then will "soft" support cement itself into the new structures needed to rebuild our way of life.

Rather than directing our energy to convince committed voters to change their way of thinking, Greens should be encouraging their already strong "soft" support to go the distance and put their vote where their mouth is.

It is ironic that in countries where Western governments are attempting to "bring democracy to the oppressed people of ...(insert country here ie: Iraq, Afghanistan, etc)" voter turnout is higher than in Western countries, despite having to endure threats, intimidation, violence and murder. Here we just have to go down the street but, on average, 42% of eligible voters choose to not bother.

Maybe we should be taking a lesson from those we aspire to teach.