What if your riding's candidate is a douche?

I'd like to add some weight to those advocating getting involved for next time. In between elections riding associations form 'candidate search' committees to seek out potential candidates for the next election. As the election approaches the riding will hold a nomination meeting to select their candidate and a vote will be held(if there's more then 1 person, otherwise they will be acclaimed).

As a member you can vote for the candidate your party puts forward, if you get more involved you can help out in the search and in interviewing potential candidates, then if there's a race you can help your choice get elected so that next time you won't have to deal with this issue, you can have your party and candidate too!

As a current riding president I know if you were in my riding we'd love to have new perspective (all the parties want new ppl, we actually like having new opinions too) . I've also been a candidate 4 times. In 2000 I was acclaimed, in 2004 I won a contested nomination, in 2006 I again won a contested nomination. The 4th time I ran it was municipal so there was no nomination.

My footer below is a little collage of those years. 95-99 were my teen years and though I was under 18 for much of it I could still vote within the party (you can join and vote within a political party from the age of 14). the other sections are from my campaigns and include my campaign photos. 2006 includes federal and municipal campaigns

Thank you for the helpful replies. I was beginning to think this forum was a joke. Despite my rather slang choice of words in my original post, I am quite serious about this. Perhaps I'll look into becoming more involved. The biggest problem is of course dedicating the time.

I'll consider voting for the lesser of the three evils in the competition. It seems like a waste, however, as that lesser of the three evils stands no chance whatsoever. Ah life's a bitch sometimes!

If its really tough for you, you can always relegate the choice to a financial one. With the elimination of union and corporate donations political parties now get federal funding based on the # of votes. It basically works out to $1.75/per vote per year in funding to the political party you vote for.

They also need 10% of the vote in the riding so that the current candidate gets reimbursed. That money generally goes to the riding association so they can use it next time around.

At one time I thought that a vote against someone else wasn't democracy and I chose to vote only for someone I could believe in.. and I ended up voting Libertarian. My one vote constituted 3% of all their votes and, although it was good to see the effect of my single vote, am asshole got in and I got sick of voting for folks who would never make a difference.

In the end I learned that either you work to make a difference or make a compromise.