The other day, I was driving home with the girls in the van. Eleanor is 11 and in grade 5, Rebecca is 6 and in Sr. Kindergarten.
I guess in grade 5, they have a mock election, and they get to vote for the candidates that are running in our riding. I had been planning to talk to our kids about the election and the voting process, but I hadn’t done so yet. This is what happens if you don’t teach you kids about politics.
As we drove, we passed several election signs, and Eleanor said “In georgetown, there are really only red and blue signs. Are they the people who will get the most votes?”
“Yes” I told her, “those are the most popular votes.”
“I voted for the blue guy” Eleanor announced.
“Really?” I asked “Did you have a vote at school?”
“Yup”
“And Why did you choose the blue guy?”
“Because people in my class told me to.”
Guess I should have had that talk.
“Why did they tell you to? What reason did they give you to vote for him?”
“They said the red guy was going to hike taxes”
I guess the other parents remembered to have the talk with their kids.
“You should never vote for someone because someone told you to.” I explained “You can read all about the different parties and what they stand for and you can decide for yourself which party is best for you.”
I explained that the party that isn’t going to hike taxes may be cutting funding to something she finds important, that some parties have families in mind while others have big business in mind.
I told her that I chose to vote green, and as we passed a sign for the green party candidate, I pointed it out.
“I think that’s the only green sign in Georgetown.” She said
We discussed how each party stands for different things, and each party has their own goals, so it was important to read about them and decide which party she liked and which party she didn’t like.
To that, Rebecca said, “Yeah, because one of them might have a cake that you don’t like.”
And so ended my political discussion.
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