Election not top of mind for St. John's Costco shoppers

For journalists, election campaigns are all-consuming. Here at CBC, we're reporting from the campaign trail, we've hosted several candidates' debates, and we're airing the obligatory paid political announcements.

We're also hearing from some super engaged voters. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are clogged with post-debate discussions, and impassioned pleas to vote for this candidate or that.

So one day this week, I contributed a small election story to the pile of coverage, a streeter for the St. John's Morning Show.

In the journalism trade, a streeter happens when a journo goes to a place with lots of people milling about, asks the "people on the street" a quick question or two, and then edits the responses together.

I figured a reasonable cross-section of northeast Avalon humanity could be found in the parking lot at Costco.

Off I went, armed with my audio recorder and a handful of CBC pencils for prizes.

My questions were simple: No. 1, name your federal election riding, and No. 2, name two of the candidates in your riding.

Correct answers were scarce

Out of 14 people I interviewed, only one woman came close.

Nadine was able to name her riding as Avalon, Scott Andrews as one of the candidates, and she guessed that another candidate's name was Janine Barnett. That was close enough to the name of the NDP candidate Jeannie Baldwin (not to mention the Conservative candidate Lorraine Barnett), so I gave her a pencil.

Another woman, Dawn, correctly identified her riding as St. John's East, and named Nick Whalen as the Liberal candidate. She blanked out on the name of the incumbent candidate, the NDP's Jack Harris, but she did say that she voted for him in the last election. I gave her a pencil.

Dan, an older gentleman, was able to identify his riding Mount Pearl, or St. John's South, (official name: St. John's South-Mount Pearl), NDP candidate Ryan Cleary, and "Seamus or Steamus or something." Pencil!

The other 11 people struck out. Some remembered a name — Seamus O'Regan seemed to stick, others took a stab at naming their riding ("Northwest?") or named a provincial district or politician.

Then there were those who admitted they simply had no clue on either question.

Dejected and puzzled

I went back to our CBC studio, feeling kind of dejected, and a bit puzzled.

The people I talked to ranged in age from about 30 to senior citizens. They were at a station in life where they could buy a cartload of stuff from Costco and bring it out to their waiting vehicles.

I know this is a very unscientific sample, but to me, that's pretty middle class. That's the demographic of voters that all federal political parties seem to be desperately wooing.

Then I found some numbers which gave me some perspective.

According to Statistics Canada, in the last federal election in 2011, only 53 per cent of the eligible voters in Newfoundland and Labrador cast a ballot.

We weren't much better with the 2011 provincial election, with only 58 per cent of eligible voters showing up.

Why bother voting?

Now, there are many reasons why people don't vote. Some don't see the point, as long as they are law-abiding citizens who pay their taxes. Others are stymied by Elections Canada bureaucracy.

There's also the probability that a good many of the people who didn't vote the last time simply couldn't be bothered.

We're not exactly Libya, where thousands of people died in 2011 while overthrowing a dictatorship, ultimately resulting in free elections.

We live in a stable, peaceful democracy. Regardless of what happens on Oct. 19, life will pretty much carry on as usual for Canadians. The shopping trips to Costco will continue.

For sure, many of you are following election stories in the news, tuning in to the debates, and reading the pamphlets at your door from cover to cover.

But there are also many of you who hear all this as white noise, and you're tuning out. If you bother to show up at the polls, you might will simply mark your X on a name you recognize, or vote for "You know, buddy."

Democracy. It's not always pretty, but it's better than the alternative.