Judging from the public response that came this week to reports that a federal election this spring was inevitable, Canadians are overwhelmingly unenthused about being called on to vote for a national government yet again


This will be, after all, the fourth federal election in seven years, and the past three have returned minority governments with a relatively short shelf life. Quite possibly this one will too. But then quite possibly it won't - if the electorate takes an active interest in the campaign and turns out in numbers that can make a difference.
It's true that there were good reasons to avoid an election at this time. Two and a half years after the last one, the government is only halfway through its mandate. There is no compelling economic or social crisis facing the country, no major scandal that cries out for redress and no defining issue that imposes itself as the focus of an election campaign.
There is the matter of cost. Estimates peg the price tag for this election at more than $300 million, money that many, if not most, Canadians would say could be better spent in other ways. (Doubling the outlay for seniors living in poverty that was included in this week's federal budget, for instance.) And it's not as if Parliament was short of things with which to busy itself. The election call means that some 500 bills currently before the House of Commons and Senate will expire on the order paper.
No matter what the various leaders are saying about the necessity of an election, or lack thereof, the main driving force for this one is partisan interest. The Conservatives, while claiming to want nothing more than to keep governing, see an opportunity to score the majority government that has eluded them in the past two elections. Had they really wanted to just keep on governing they could have brought either the NDP or the Bloc Québécois onside without compromising their schedule for eliminating the budget deficit.
For the Liberals, whose popularity is sinking to ever-deeper record lows, an election campaign is a last resort to boost their fortunes under Michael Ignatieff 's flagging leadership after nothing else has worked. For the NDP, it's a matter of saving ideological face when it didn't get enough of what it was holding out for in the Conservative budget. For the Bloc, which might have been bought off by sales-tax harmonization compensation for Quebec, the time is ripe to pick off a few Tory seats while resentment still percolates in the Quebec City area over the government's refusal to fund a new arena.
The level of voter cynicism was reflected in a recent poll in which a representative sample of Canadians said in clear majority that open, honest and trustworthy government is the critical issue at this time, more so even than the economy. But when asked which of the national parties is best qualified to provide it, the greatest number said none of the above.
All of this doesn't augur well for a better voter turnout than in the last election, which was the lowest in Canadian history. But however fatigued they might feel about trudging to the polls yet again, however dissatisfied they might be with the selections on offer, Canadians should embrace this opportunity to choose who will govern them.
In other parts of the world, people are putting their lives on the line for the chance to do what we in large numbers are complaining about. If we shirk our democratic duty we dishonour their struggle and degrade the gift of freedom with which we are so richly endowed.