“R is the most menacing letter in the English alphabet –that’s why they call it murder and not muckduck.”

If you are expecting a comical analysis of “The Office” turn back now. No, wait! Stay, I promise this could still be good, think less Jim Halpert more Steven Harper. Oh God, that’ll just scare you off even more.

I was thinking about the letter R, as it often pervades my thoughts. And I think it’s true it could very well be the most menacing letter. I take my cue from a letter to the editor that was published in the October 12, 2009 issue of Maclean’s.

Broken, dysfunctional, boring: many adjectives could be applied to our less-than-perfect governmental arrangements (“Canadian democracy is broken,” National, Sept. 28). There is obviously much room for improvement. However imperfect it may be, we do have a constitutional, liberal democracy. This permits political aspirations to be achieved by peaceful evolution as opposed to violent revolutions. Like most people, I’ll take evolution over revolution. Thanks for your leadership on an important issue.

And there it is, with the addition of the letter R we can change from an evolution to a revolution. Perhaps that doesn’t sound that menacing to you, per se. But that just might be my entire point. As Canadians, we tend to live a pretty cushy life. I’m not saying we’re perfect but the fact that you’re reading this is because you have access to the internet and the ability to read as a result of free education.

One time I was asked to define Canadian culture as part of a phone interview. I said something about multiculturalism and that’s how people see Canada when I travel abroad. (I was also asked to define British culture too – that one didn’t go so well.) Then what is Canada? What defining features do we have? Luckily (depending on who you ask) we’ve always been a democratic country. Granted, the right to vote didn’t quite belong to everyone at all times, but this has always been a “free” country. That’s why everyone comes here, because we’re just so relaxed. However we may be too relaxed as our way of life seems to breed a certain amount of political apathy, especially in youth.

In the last federal election, voter turnout was 59.1%– the lowest in Canadian history. 40.9% of people decided they just didn’t care enough to vote. To a point I understand one’s frustrations over the state of government in this fine country. I’ve only been legal to vote for four years and somehow I’ve voted (provincially and federal) each year since then. That doesn’t seem quite right.

But why not vote? It’s one of strongest voices we do have, and it’s not physically that difficult. Women have fought for the right to vote, what would the Famous Five think of young women saying they just don’t know enough about the issues to vote? Apathy is not the answer. There have been wars to fight for democracy. And no, I’m not talking about the Iraq invasion. November is a special time and particularly this year. We remember those who died in the great wars which again we are so fortunate to not have lived through. This year also marks twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I spent one night and two days in Berlin while backpacking through Europe this summer. To me, it is an enchanting city. It’s so rich with historical significance and what an utterly unique city it is. I read a great article in the Globe and Mail this weekend that spoke of a woman living in East Germany who was imprisoned for holding up a banner reading “For an open country with free people”. She is 40 now, meaning she was just 20 at the time. People cared; because if you take something away, people will start to care. You don’t truly understand freedom until you’ve had it taken away.

I admit I didn’t always have such an interest in the Berlin Wall; after all I was two years old when it came down. There must have been shockwaves sent around the world. I’ve only seen the reaction to the Kennedy assassination as pictured in “Mad Men”. I do remember when the World Trade Center went down; I was wandering the stairwell on my spare period in grade ten. I suppose at that time I couldn’t really fathom the effect it would have. So where will you be the next time something world-changing happens?

Be a part of the change – vote and pay attention to the issues that surround us outside of your Twitter and Facebook newsfeed. Maybe we need that menacing letter R to light a fire under our collective asses. Canadians (at least 40.9% of us) have not been part of the evolution for too long, maybe we might need a bit of revolution. And Happy 20^th Birthday Berlin.