As the evening drew late, I would become bored and often fall asleep.
After all I was only about 10 or 11 years of age.
Adults would be in the other room, counting small pieces of paper.
'The numbers have to match', they would echo to each other, 'we have to be right'.
'We are electing the Government', they reiterated, trumping the magnitude of their task.
My father was the Returning Officer for several Provincial elections shortly after 1949 when Newfoundland became a Province in the Dominion of Canada.
Supervising the election process, ensuring its authenticity and reporting the results accurately was an awesome responsibility. My father did his job to the utmost degree.
Somewhere in my adult life, I recalled these 'election experiences' and decided that eventually, when time permitted, I would follow in my father's footsteps.
Two days ago, on October 25, 2010, I participated as a Polling Clerk in the Municipal Election for Burlington, Ontario, our home and adopted city. Now I have completed the circle, after working as a Deputy Polling Clerk at both the Provincial and Federal levels.
In our high school civics class, we were encouraged to be good citizens, locally, nationally and internationally. My father taught the class.
While working at each election, I think about my father and the civic duty he taught me, even though I was none too happy to have to wait many hours for him to finish up the election counting so we could go home and sleep.
His lesson on participatory citizenship stuck to me like moss on a rolling stone
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