EDITORIAL: Get out and vote!

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Monday will indeed be one of the most consequential elections in Canada’s history and it’s important that whoever wins has a strong mandate to govern.

The next Canadian government will not only have to deal with the tariff war launched against us by U.S. President Donald Trump, but also with the high cost of living Canadians are facing today, which was a crisis long before Trump won his second term as president.

During this election campaign, we’ve given you our views about which leader and which party we believe are best equipped to lead Canada into the future and tackle the enormous challenges we face as a nation.

But we’ve had our say and election day is not about our views, or the views of political pundits and pollsters.
It’s about your views and your decision to make.

Some positive news when it comes to civic engagement is that 7.3 million Canadians have already cast their ballots in advance polls in this election — 25% higher than the 5.8 million people who did so in the 2021 federal election.

While Canadians are increasingly voting in advance polls because of the convenience, a 25% boost in one election cycle suggests the total popular vote turnout in this election could crack 70% of eligible voters.

That would be the highest voter turnout in more than three decades.

It would also be a positive sign that, despite everything that encourages cynicism about the political process today  — from politicians who don’t tell us the truth to repeated attempts by foreign powers to interfere in our democracy — most of us still have confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.

That said, what the foreign interference inquiry into the last two federal elections showed us is that our governments must be far more diligent going forward to combat foreign interference than they have been in the past.

That’s vital no matter which political leader and which party form the next government.

It may be a cliche, but it’s also true that tens of thousands of Canadians made the supreme sacrifice in war to preserve our democracy, the right to vote in free elections and the peaceful transition of power from one government to the next.

Honour them by voting on Monday.