Just before Canada Day, Ipsos Reid released a poll stating that 60% of Canadians would fail the Citizenship Test.
Never-mind being too uninformed to vote.....Apparently most Canadians are too uninformed to even
be Canadians.
Putting conditions on who can vote is always problematic - and as the article states - its essentially anti-democratic to do so. If we did have such a test to qualify voters, who would be disqualified?? The mentally handicapped?? Perhaps new Canadians who's grasp of English or French was not up to par?? The very elderly whose minds may have wandered on them??
That said....I also disagree with the notion of Mandatory Voting. Somehow coercing people to vote seems as bad as excluding them from the process.
The probelm with having such low voter turnout, as we do in Canada is that no one really knows why those who didn't vote, didn't vote. Was it because they are like Hemi-Cuda and can't find an appealing option on the ballot?? Was it because they feel uninformed?? Is it just apathy?? Did it rain on election day, and they decided not to bother??
I guess this kind of sums it up for me....
