Lack of interest in politics blamed for low voter turnout: Stats Canada
Posted February 23, 2016 8:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Are you one of the many Canadians who didn’t vote in the fall federal election?
Not being interested in politics was the biggest reason given in a survey done by Statistics Canada. Around a third of people who didn’t vote said that was behind their decision, with other reasons including being too busy.
Dennis Pilon is a political scientist with York University and predicts turnout overall won’t be as high in the next federal election — he thinks the country should be looking at some reforms.
“One idea is the idea of compulsory voting. It would be fairly easy to introduce, fairly low impact, doesn’t force people to vote, it just forces them to show up,” he explains. “We could establish a Saturday or a Sunday as a national voting day, which would probably limit some of the complications of people working or juggling other commitments.”
Other suggestions to change the way the system works include lowering the voting age.
Nearly 70 per cent of people across the country who can vote, chose to have their say.
