Voted! Your turn. Time for a change.

Lots of good things happened today.

It started with cats purring in my lap, and coffee.

Then a wonderful chat with a buddy over more coffee.

More cats just now, as I'm writing.

I'm just back from voting. I couldn't wait to put an X beside someone else's name, other than Harper's. The pleasure was amazing. At least one of my readers gets the pleasure of reading Harper's name on the ballot, and voting for someone else. Maybe several readers, I'm not sure of the exact boundary for this riding.

But this is the key piece here, people. Vote. Get your ass out there and vote. A lady in a walker hobbled into a crowded polling station. Someone in a wheelchair was making their way into the parking lot. Lots of people there were leaning on canes. The grey brigade was out in force, and good for them. They got out and voted, and it might have taken a significant fraction of their resources today to do that. The volunteers said it was really busy at first, then steady all day. Good. We didn't have to wait long at all. The volunteers were wonderful.

What? You aren't voting? What's your excuse again? Say it louder. Uhuh. Yeah. You deserve a big kick in the ass. At the very least. Every vote is important. In the last provincial election one riding was tied. Exactly the same number of votes for two candidates. Don't tell me a vote doesn't matter.

You have 8 hours a day, for the next 3 days, plus several more hours today. Just go do it.

I firmly think it's time for a change. Harper has demeaned us. Demeaned Canada. This has been a disgusting election, with him trying every trick in the book to distract us from the real issues. They've cheated in the last 3 elections, with people going to jail over it. There's no reason to believe he won't do the same again. There's a reason the Organization for Security and Economic Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is sending election monitors.

The only solution is to vote against in such massive numbers that the cheating doesn't matter. We've done it before. Remember Mulroney? How we collectively gagged and voted them out of office in such droves there were only two Conservative MP's left? We can do it again.

Consider the thought processes of a man who thinks the long form census is an invasion of privacy, yet writes legislation that let's the police monitor all forms of communication between ordinary Canadians, without a warrant, and essentially without oversight.

Consider creating second class citizenship, reinstating the medieval punishment of banishment. When you realize that they can strip a person of citizenship for terrorism related activities, and the Harper government thinks that protesting a pipeline is a terrorist activity, and they've been complicit in sending Canadian citizens overseas for torture, you should wonder if you are next. If you are an immigrant, or the child of immigrants, this should concern you. Once the precedent has been set, it will be expanded. Terrorists this week, disagreeing with Harper next month. Lese Majeste as a crime has gone essentially dormant, but I can see Harper bringing it back.

There is no end of reasons to vote against the Conservatives. You can look them up yourself, but the easy, simple thing to remember; it's time for a change. Governments should change. A decade of anybody is enough, and a decade of Harper incompetence is more than enough. What makes it worse, is railing against the Liberals for various faults, omnibus bills being only one, and then doing the very same thing himself when in power.

Go vote. Many campaign teams will help you get to the polling booth. Make a party of it, get a bunch of buddies together, vote, then celebrate. It won't take very long, and you are not too busy. You aren't. Just do it. To paraphrase my buddy Beth, Shut Up And Vote.