[twitter]I have been taking my kids to vote with me since they were born. Every election, every time. I want them to know this is what we do. I want them to feel engaged. I want them to care.
I usually let them slide the ballot in the box for me, a couple of times they’ve even made my X for me after I told them where to mark.
This time, however, I let Zacharie make the decision of how I would vote.
You can see the rambling 2000 word essay over on my personal blog about why I did this but the TL;DR is: I don’t like any of my candidates or parties. So, instead of spoiling my ballot, as was my intent, I decided I would “choose Alberta’s future” by letting the future choose it for themselves.
I sat Zacharie down at breakfast and walked him through the CBC Vote Compass. It’s a series of a couple of dozen questions about important political issues related to the election campaign. The idea, at the end, is to see who your political ideology most aligns with.
Mine is in the middle, it’s not lined up with anyone. So I gave the quiz to Zacharie with the intent of seeing how he, a 7 (nearly 8) year old, felt about the issues. However his compass aligned, would determine my vote.
Here’s how it went:
As you would expect, Zacharie is an altruistic 7 yr old and sees all the good and potential in the world. He loves animals, and Mother Nature and wants the best for everyone. He’s economically on par with my answers, but more socially liberal.
He shares policy affinity with everyone on the left and is least like the right wing parties. So, as promised, I (Zacharie) voted for my Alberta Party candidate in Calgary Bow in an advance poll this week.
The legal voting age in Alberta is 18, but today, I voted like a 7 yr old.