(SHELBY THEVENOT / iNFOnews.ca)

With just two days until general voting day, more than 4.7 million voters across Canada have already taken advantage of advanced polls, according to Elections Canada.

In the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding, there have been more than 19,000 people who have voted in advanced polls out of the 102,758 eligible voters. That means about 18.5 per cent of the eligible population has already cast their ballot.

Andrea Morantz, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, says overall, there has been an increase in electors voting in advance polls.

“It’s a very substantial increase and it’s following the pattern of what’s happening across Canada which saw a 29 per cent increase,” Morantz said.

The 4.7 million early voters is an increase compared to the 3,657,415 electors who voted in advance polls in the 2015 general election.

“It’s helped that there were 12 hours a day that the advanced polls are open,” Morantz said.

“We got the message loud and clear from Canadians, that they like the greater options for voting.”

"It is difficult to know exactly what high advance turnout means. On one side, it can be a reflection of the interest in the election and motivation on the part of the voters. If this is correct, then this may suggest a high turnout on Monday,"  Maxime Héroux-Legault, assistant professor of Political Science at UBC Okanagan said.

"On the other hand, it may also be a sign that Elections Canada has been more effective in promoting advance voting and that Canadians are more willing to use this means to vote. In this case, it might not indicate increased enthusiasm or a surge of participation on Monday."

To help voters better understand their candidates before the big day, we sent out an array of questions ranging from abortion to drug decriminalization and touched on their personal obstacles and what they think are the biggest issues facing their riding.

For the final question, we asked the candidates in the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding what they thought about their competing parties platforms, and if there was anything they wished was in their own. We also asked about their willingness to co-operate with other parties if the need for a minority government arises. Some preferred not to answer the question, some disagreed with all other platforms and some agreed with parts of their opponents' platforms.

Peter Kerek, Communist Party of Canada

There’s really nothing I see on any other party’s platform that I wish the Communist Party had adopted. This isn’t surprising, however, as we are the only party railing against the injustices inherent in capitalism and seek the dismantling of capitalism whereas the other parties just wish to tinker with a system that’s already fixed in favour of those who remain atop the capitalist pyramid.

Iain Currie, Green Party

I understand the NDP platform calls for universal dental care, which I support in principle. The Green Party considered this but found that we could not justify its inclusion in our platform without blowing the budget. We are instead calling for federal funding for dental care for low-income Canadians.

Yes. Greens are the only party whose platform calls for working across party lines and Elizabeth May is the only federal leader with a proven track record of building consensus with all her colleagues in Parliament. The problems we are facing as a nation are too serious to allow political squabbling and partisan positioning to interfere with working toward solutions.

Kira Cheeseboroguh, Animal Protection Party of Canada

Honestly, I wish there were more focus on creating a decolonized and post-colonial future, one that dismantles all systems of oppression, including capitalism which the Communist Party seeks to do. Though many of our policies that address the exploitation of humans and non-humans hold elements of post-colonial theory, it is not enough. It is a form of appropriation to selectively choose pieces from decolonization/post-colonialism to fit it into existing systems of oppression.

Further on this topic, I found an article written by Billy-Ray Belcourt, a Cree scholar with a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, about the parallels of how capitalism has historically oppressed Indigenous peoples and animals, albeit differently from one another.

Belcourt argues one side of capitalism sought to eradicate the existence of Indigenous peoples for settlers to lay claim to their land through acts of genocide, assimilation, and displacement, while the other side oppresses animals by exploiting their reproductive systems breeding millions into existence, experience suffering from the commodification and genetic modification of their bodies, and of course their death.

All this suffering for the benefit of settlers and now their descendants within a capitalistic paradigm. However, our current political state itself is a system of oppression that will be dismantled through decolonization. Until then, I will fight for change as much as I can within the existing systems, so it can make things a little better.

As for a minority government, yes, I believe there is room for collaboration up until policies or ideologies involve a victim.

Candidates from the Conservative, Liberal, New Democratic Party and the People's Party of Canada did not answer the question by the time of publication.

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