Voter Turnout Continues To Drop

[maplesyrup]

1997 - 67% voter turnout

2000 - 61.2% voter turnout

2004 - 60.5% voter turnout

PEI seems to have higher voter turnout than other areas in the country.

Why are these non-voters not motivated to vote?

Would some form of PR help encourage a higher percentage of voters?

[maplesyrup]

Chewing on election leftovers

How to turn around the turnout?

At 60.5 per cent, the vote turnout wasn't that much lower than the 62 per cent of three years ago considering that this was a summer election when many are more interested in boating than in balloting.

Still, it was bad for Canada: It's our lowest electoral showing since Confederation. And it's embarrassingly bad internationally. Among United Nations' member-states, we rank 109th in voter turnout, in between Fiji and Lebanon.

Proportional representation is bound to now get proposed as a solution.

It has advantages. The government would almost always be a minority, and so would be more responsive to public opinion. Smaller parties would do better — the Greens would have won actual MPs this time around.

There are disadvantages also. National parties are coalitions (regional, ethnic, economic, etc) in which multiple and often competing interests get accommodated by bargaining and trade-offs.

We are already the most diverse country in the world, highly decentralized and ever more polyglot. PR could increase our variety of parties while leaving us with fewer truly national parties.

We need a Royal Commission on proportional representation (there is an infinity of systems) to look at these and other pluses and minuses.

Sounds like a good stalling tactic for the Martin Liberals to me.

[August1991]

PEI seems to have higher voter turnout than other areas in the country.

Public shame. If you don't vote, everyone knows...

Why are these non-voters not motivated to vote?

Why bother? Even more, why bother to figure out amongst all the verbiage who promises what? Your vote changed absolutely nothing in the past election, Maple Syrup. You might as well have stayed home.

In fact, your vote gave you nothing of any practical use to you except: 1) you felt you did your civic duty, 2) you took sides and made election night more fun and 3) you can impress family and colleagues with your political knowledge.

It is on these points that democracy rests.

Compare all the effort people devote to finding a good job (or a good house) with the effort they devote to finding a good political party to vote for.

[maplesyrup]

PEI seems to have higher voter turnout than other areas in the country.

Public shame. If you don't vote, everyone knows...

Why are these non-voters not motivated to vote?

Why bother? Even more, why bother to figure out amongst all the verbiage who promises what? Your vote changed absolutely nothing in the past election, Maple Syrup. You might as well have stayed home.

In fact, your vote gave you nothing of any practical use to you except: 1) you felt you did your civic duty, 2) you took sides and made election night more fun and 3) you can impress family and colleagues with your political knowledge.

It is on these points that democracy rests.

Compare all the effort people devote to finding a good job (or a good house) with the effort they devote to finding a good political party to vote for.

Well in Australia apparentyly one pays a fine for not voting so pretty much evryone votes. Does that make for a more informed electorate? I am curious about that.

August1991.......you are correct that my vote did not count for much (the only redeeming benefit is the annual $1.75 to the party of my choice, and that is a discouraging part of my own reality, which is the main reason I support PR.

With PR every vote counts so it seems to me the people who are opposed to PR don't really give a damm about a healthy democracy they just want power for power's sake.

I think the word democracy is one of the most abused words in the dictionary.

"Government by the people", eh!

[playfullfellow]

People are just unenchanted with the whole process. Who can blame them? We get nothing but broken promises and childish rantings. I think if the 3 main parties were to actually start pointing out to Canadians why Canada is good and what makes this country great plus producing positive ideas on how we can make this country even greater, we would start to see better returns. This tabloid style of campaigning sucks and is getting tiring, makes me wonder why I even vote.

[Cartman]

One of the parties has to generate a NEW platform that motivates people again. The NDP did that a bit with the focus on Municipalities and the Greens with the environment. A strong leader with a few new ideas (combining complimentary ideas from each party) is really needed right now. It seemed as though this should have been one of the most exciting elections because the result was unknown and I think the leaders were actually the best in a while, but I did not feel very motivated when voting. I wonder if it will ever reach a critical mass and really drop? On the other hand, there was only 1 candidate who actually lived in my riding and was elected with 81% of the vote. I sent an email off to the Global asking the Cons to give us another candidate to choose from.

[Bro]

Many people have lost faith in the political system,mainly because of the liberals disrespect and mismanagament of their tax dollars.This leads to a growing number of Canadians moving,mostly in the health care field,and a larger percentage of Canadians opting for deals in which taxes are not collected ,and therefore less revenue for the government to have for basic necessities.

As long as the liberals are in power,this view of the political environment will only be enhanced.

So in essence,every time they raise taxes,they collect less,and the downward spiral of our wealth and trust in politicians continues.

[Blacksheep]

Many people have lost faith in the political system,mainly because of the liberals disrespect and mismanagament of their tax dollars.

Lets not blame one party here. Voter turnout is down at all levels of government. Why?......just like you said, people have lost faith in Canada's political system. Likewise I think that the diversity of all of the parties creates more confusion in the eyes of the public. The public is also very aware that a platform at election time will usually NOT see reality; and is mearly a vehicle for them to grab a seat.

Will PR help....I have no idea; but I would really like to look at it closer. A better idea I think would be a two party "American" system. If nothing else either idea may just give people the feeling that their vote is counting towards something; better yet someone. I think it boils down to the fact that people (myself included) just want a government (PM, Premier....whatever) that is accountable for promises made, kept and broken. It's something we don't have now, and never will under our current system.

I was very much hoping that the Federal election would have given us a new government, but it seams that the voting public would rather see us steer down the same road to nowhere.

I don't have the answer but maybe together WE can offer up some possible solutions.

[Dragon]

Chewing on election leftovers

Proportional representation is bound to now get proposed as a solution.

It has advantages. The government would almost always be a minority, and so would be more responsive to public opinion. Smaller parties would do better — the Greens would have won actual MPs this time around.

The problem I see with this is, given our history with minority governments, we'd probably be voting every year or 2.

After a couple of quick minorities, I think you'd have alot of people really sick of voting and the turnout may end up dropping even more

[August1991]

Lets not blame one party here. Voter turnout is down at all levels of government. Why?......just like you said, people have lost faith in Canada's political system.

Nonsense.

Many people have lost faith in the political system,mainly because of the liberals disrespect and mismanagament of their tax dollars.

Nonsense.

People are just unenchanted with the whole process. Who can blame them? We get nothing but broken promises and childish rantings.

Nonsense.

A stranger walks up to you on the street and says he is interested in buying a new car and has $40,000 to spend. He asks you to go and find about all the available cars, options, best price and to meet you in a week and advise him. He will give you absolutely nothing for your efforts. Do you accept?

This is what happens in an election. And more and more people are saying, "I've got better things to do."

Please don't tell me that we are choosing our own government etc. etc. Your individiual vote will change absolutely nothing at all. (If you stop singing, will the choir not be heard?) Furthermore, voting means not only putting an X but also taking the time to inform yourself and think about the candidates.

you are correct that my vote did not count for much (the only redeeming benefit is the annual $1.75 to the party of my choice, and that is a discouraging part of my own reality, which is the main reason I support PR.

True, your vote gave $1.75 to the party of your choice. Wow. As to PR, your vote will still count for nothing since we can't have fractions of MPs.

A strong leader with a few new ideas (combining complimentary ideas from each party) is really needed right now.

This won't give more weight to my vote.

Cartman implies however that we should encourage people to vote by, say, giving each voter $100 for their vote. Or, as in Australia, fining them $75 if they don't vote. This would raise voter turnouts. But would it make Canada more democratic?

I'm not depressed about low voter turnout. I'm depressed at the simplistic reaction to it.

[Dragon]

I think the predicted minority government helped bring down the turnout this year. Since many were predicting a close seat count between the Liberals and CPC’s, I get the feeling some people thought that not much would get accomplished so they held off till the next election.

Maybe a lower turnout wouldn’t necessarily be such a terrible thing, as long as those who vote are making informed decisions (the old quality over quantity argument). Would you rather have 100% turnout with 40% of people voting for somebody because that’s who they were told to vote for or because thats who they voted for last time. Or would you rather have 60% turnout but with 100% people knowing why they are voting the way they are?

[Black Dog]

Why bother? Even more, why bother to figure out amongst all the verbiage who promises what? Your vote changed absolutely nothing in the past election, Maple Syrup. You might as well have stayed home.

My riding was decided by a few hundred votes. i can safely say mine made a difference.

However, for the most part, votes don't count. For example: the votes of the 2 million westerners who voted for parties othyer than the Cons, yet are seeing little or no representation in Parliment.

We need to make votes count: as MS said, some form of PR is the way to go. Countries with some form of PR systems tend to have much higher voter turnouts.

l PR help....I have no idea; but I would really like to look at it closer. A better idea I think would be a two party "American" system. If nothing else either idea may just give people the feeling that their vote is counting towards something; better yet someone.

That's a terrible idea, simply because two parties cannot accomodate a significant diversity of views. What you end up with are two parties virtuall indistinguishable from one another (liek The Dems and GOP down south, or the Liberals and Cons here).

As to PR, your vote will still count for nothing since we can't have fractions of MPs.

What are you talking about?

[August1991]

My riding was decided by a few hundred votes. i can safely say mine made a difference.

Did you vote a few hundred times?

We need to make votes count: as MS said, some form of PR is the way to go.

There 13,489,559 votes cast in the past election. Of these, 2,116,536 were case for the NDP.

If we had had strict PR, for example, it would have required 43,831 votes to elect one MP. The NDP would get 48.28 MPs, or rather 48 MPs.

Even in PR, your single NDP vote will change nothing. (If there had been 2,116,535 NDP votes, the final result would be absolutely identical.)

Worse, as an individual, you gain nothing from voting. Democratic votes are a poor way to make collective decisions.

[Bro]

Giving people a tax deduction if they voted,say around 1000.00 would certainly inspire some who are less than willing to do their democratic duty.This way,you are not forcing one to vote,but the payoff is there if they do.

Much more money is wasted on less useful ideas,at least

this would project a more accurate picture of Canadian views and values than the polls or politicians claim.

[Stoker]

I feel the need to ask, why force people to vote? Do we really want the ignorant being forced to vote........FFS we could end up having fringe parties like the Rhinos, Pot Party, Greens and the NDP having a real say in government

Nah, if someone can't be bothered fine, let them stay home.........just don't bitch to me about government if you don't vote......as for paying a person to vote or giving them a tax break, you do understand that then the majority of voters will take advantage of this right?

[Michael Hardner]

I'm with Stoker on this one.

I think Democracy is a bit of a victim of its own success. If we had real pressing problems affecting the majority, then we'd be out there voting. Right now, elections seem to have taken their place among many entertainments available to us.

You can see from many of the personalities on this board that many people vote as an expression of their personal philosophies about the world, as a way of identifying themselves. Why else would people have such strong opinions about parties that have such similar policies ?

[Cartman]

Hey August, I do not think that fining people who do not vote or paying people to vote is useful. I just think that the parties need to put forth a platform that will entice people to vote.

I am still not quite sure about Chretien's $/vote idea.

[noelandmero]

I think Democracy is a bit of a victim of its own success. If we had real pressing problems affecting the majority, then we'd be out there voting. Right now, elections seem to have taken their place among many entertainments available to us.

You can see from many of the personalities on this board that many people vote as an expression of their personal philosophies about the world, as a way of identifying themselves. Why else would people have such strong opinions about parties that have such similar policies ?

You may have hit the nail on the head.

[Cartman]

True enough, good point Mike.