Stephen Harper and the Conservatives won a minority government last night ensuring the other parties remained losers. However, the real loser of the evening was the 50% of Canadians that decided not to vote.

Voting turnout in Canada has been on a steady decline for the past 20 years. In previous elections, the government blamed the low voter turnout on global warming and gang violence. But John Vanderbook, a Political Science professor at the University of Vancouver, has a different theory.

Vanderbook believes that the reason half of Canada isn’t going to the polls anymore is because they don’t want to miss any of the election coverage on TV.

“Most people work until 5:00pm, so they are left with two options: They can either go to their polling station to cast their vote, or they can rush home to enjoy the great election coverage on TV,” said Vanderbook. “Would you want to miss Peter Mansbridge’s coverage? I don’t think so.”

The Daily Seagull asked residents in Surrey if they agreed with Vanderbook’s theory. Many of the people we asked thought the theory was interesting, but didn’t have time to answer because they were in a rush to get home to see the TV coverage.

“No time to talk,” said Surreyite Clint Clark. “Gotsta get home to see Tony Parsons!”

Vanderbook believes that the solution to improve voter turnout is stop making people go to the polls, and start bringing the polls to the people. “Have you ever seen the show Canadian Idol?” said Vanderbook. “The singing sucks, but the process is genius.”