Allez elections Allez!

habibti please

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-51:00

Allez elections Allez!

nashwa lina khan

Apr 27, 2025

Transcript

In this episode of Habibti Please x Deathnography, we’re asking what voting even means anymore? Canada just had the highest advance voter turnout in history — with over 7.3 million ballots already cast. This new record speaks to something in larger Canadian society but in all honesty, for us, the vibes feel more like collapse than hope.

As e-day approaches this Monday, we were compelled to make this episode because of the deep weirdness of the “Elbows Up” Canada energy right now: tariffs, carbon taxes, immigration panic, wild anti-Trudeau/Trump energy, but also the sense that electoralism inside a settler colony doesn’t actually offer a way out.

We start with a vibe check: why is turnout up? Fear, anger, dread — not necessarily belief in change. Are we being gaslit into feeling like voting is meaningful, even when everything points to systemic collapse?

We get into the real question: does Canada even deserve to be saved? What are we voting for — reform? Harm reduction? And why is voting not harm reduction despite many arguing that it is. Or just legitimizing a settler colonial project? There’s real ethical tension about participating in a system that is actively involved in genocide, imperialism, and ongoing harm.

We talk about Jagmeet Singh being the only leader saying things that sound reasonable right now — but is that enough?

Is it giving "Obama knew Edward Said" vibes? Did he have the right tools all along and only step up now – or just another case of performance politics where representation masks deeper harms?

We witness a longer mapping and analysis of Singh and the party’s stance, we cite Yves Engler’s thread on Singh raising the genocide during the French Federal debate.

The NDP question is messy: is voting for them useful, useless, or actively bad? What do we do when our local candidate (like Clare Hacksel) is actually good — pro-Palestine, willing to use words like “genocide”? How do we balance local wins with provincial and national betrayals?

We get into the Vote Palestine Pledge and why it’s complicated. Some sus people are on it, but it’s still a political litmus test that's hard to ignore. We unpack critiques of strategic voting, symbolism, and what it means when "voting for Palestine" gets reduced to a checkbox.

Finally, we ask: what are the limits of electoralism in a settler colony? Is voting just giving consent to a system that’s already broken? How do we respond to the argument that “it’s privileged not to vote”? And if electoralism isn’t enough (which it isn’t), what are we actually building outside of it?

We end on some reflections about how to live your politics daily — not just in a ballot box. How to make space for grief, anger, and clarity. How to move beyond voting into something real, rooted, and lasting.

Thanks for joining the show! And happy voting or not voting.