Why are fewer Canadians voting?

[RogerWilco]

I voted, but I would imagine that 4 federal elections in 6 years doesn't help much

[Reggie Dunlop]

I think in a free-market economy, folks should be allowed to sell their votes to the highest bidder.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

What I would like to see is the term of a government to be more then 4 years so the elected officials have more time to work their plan.

Well in Canada a party can be in power for 5 years without an election, and if a party wins two or more elections in a row that gives them well over 4 years to work their plan...

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I think in a free-market economy, folks should be allowed to sell thier votes to the highest bidder.

Can someone do that if they wanted to or is it illegal?

[AFireInside]

I did not vote because I did not like any of the parties or their leaders.

I thought about going and putting a vote in, but honestly, in Alberta if I don't vote conservative my vote wont matter. I almost went and voted conservative, which makes me want to puke by the way, because all the other leaders are awful.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Can someone do that if they wanted to or is it illegal?

You meant to use green text right?

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by AFireInside

I did not vote because I did not like any of the parties or their leaders.

I thought about going and putting a vote in, but honestly, in Alberta if I don't vote conservative my vote wont matter. I almost went and voted conservative, which makes me want to puke by the way, because all the other leaders are awful.

I wonder how many people are saying that in Edmonton - Strathcona tonight.

[FlamesAddiction]

You're basically voting for who you want to screw you... and for many, it's not worth two cents to even bother. I, for one, don't believe for one second that any of them care enough to follow through with their promises if it goes against self-preservation and job security.

I personally don't feel like bestowing any of them with that privilege. That, combined with working 14 hours today, gave me little reason to bother voting.

[Kidder]

Originally Posted by First Lady

You meant to use green text right?

I will sell my sarcasm detecting prowess to HOOT right now for 10 dollars, and I'll throw in my deductive reasoning skills for another 2.

It's a Kidder firesale, everything about me must go!

[Sainters7]

I voted as well, but I wonder if the glitzy U.S. election completely overshadowing the Canadian election had something to do with the extreme low turnout today.

I always try and vote, but today I almost didnt. I'm only on 4 hours sleep and had a long-ass day at school today, didnt get home until almost 8pm. That and I knew the Conservatives were gonna basically pull the shut-out in Alberta anyways so what difference did it make either way? I was ready to pass out but ultimately my guilty conscience got the best of me and I got off my ass and voted.

[goaliegirl]

I did not vote , the conservatives always win big in my riding so I was not about to inconvience myself and walk 40 min to the polling station with 3 kids ,one of whom has the flu .
The conservatives ended up winning with 35,333 votes. Next was Green with 4,160 ,talk about a landslide .

That is why I did not vote in this election, I normally do though.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

I voted as well, but I wonder if the glitzy U.S. election completely overshadowing the Canadian election had something to do with the extreme low turnout today.

What we need is a maverick renegade, a hockey mom from the boonies and a black/arab that old ladies think = terrorists.

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by First Lady

I wonder how many people are saying that in Edmonton - Strathcona tonight.

Meh...I'm actually glad the people that don't vote continue to not vote. Its that acceptance of never going anywhere, never going to be somebody, never going to make a difference that assures that since I do care and do believe I can make a difference leads to an ever widening gap between my lifestyle and theirs.

Also absolutely hilarious that the NDP won a seat in Edmonton...they should allow them to raise "corporate taxes" in the Strathcona area to teach the residents what that actually does to average families and their kitchen tables. It would be a great example to the country.

[Flames0910]

The government has as much to blame for it as Canadian citizens. There is always whining about low voter turnout, but do they ever do anything about it?

Even the advertising campaign that was basically "remember to vote" was poorly managed. You can't just put up a commercial and expect it to work...there is so much more planning that needs to go into it. They need to understand what is going on in people's heads when they decide not to vote. Only then can they come up with a campaign to persuade people that voting matters.
As small a detail as having an election day radio commercial that was similar to the rest with a reminder that said "Today is election day, remember to vote!" would have made the whole campaign much more effective (for any marketing students on the board its called Aperture. for those that aren't marketing students its the concept that we want to catch people right when they are most likely to respond [which is why global has radio commercials that say 'remember, new episode of heroes tonight']). If you were driving around and heard it you might have stopped and thought to yourself "oh yeah, i'll make a stop after I drop off the kids, it'll only take 5 seconds"

I don't see how the government can complain about voter apathy when they are not actually taking steps to deal with it. Either they themselves are apathetic to this problem or they've put the wrong people in charge of dealing with it.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by TanguayFan

Even the advertising campaign that was basically "remember to vote" was poorly managed. You can't just put up a commercial and expect it to work...there is so much more planning that needs to go into it. They need to understand what is going on in people's heads when they decide not to vote. Only then can they come up with a campaign to persuade people that voting matters.

If they forgot about the election date, they shouldn't be voting.

No voter > Uninformed Voter

[Devils'Advocate]

What I wrote in the monster thread:

I agree 1,000,000% (that we need proportional representation). I know a lot of people that said that they were not going to bother go vote because they saw the local polls and they knew who was going to win. They felt that it was absolutely pointless to go to the polls since their vote meant absolutely nothing, nada, zippo.

Let's look at Central Nova. I haven't the foggiest idea what the hell May was thinking when she ran here... that is a staunchly Conservative riding. The last results I saw were McKay with about 20,000 votes, May with 11,000 votes and the NDP candidate with 7,000 votes. Those 7,000 NDPers must get sick of getting up every couple of years, going out to the polling station, just to finished way, way behind McKay. Eventually, people get smart and just stay home and watch Jeopardy.

And there is a general malaise among voters that believe that it's all a bunch of crap..... there were people here talking about spoiling their ballots because there are no good candidates. Well multiply that by thousands of people that just don't go to the polls because "they are all a bunch of crooks".

[WesternCanadaKing]

I think the system encourages apathy. Elections are too frequent and many ridings are so set into one party that it makes voting for anyone else pointless and not fulfilling. Its not going to make a difference so why bother? Your voice is not being heard at all.

If they brought in proportional representation that should change.

[ericschand]

Why you should vote, even if you are going to vote for the "loser"
or a protest vote, from http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?...only=false#442

"These provisions entitled any party receiving a minimum percentage of the popular vote in a general election to an annual public allowance proportional to its share of votes."

"The share of votes cast that a candidate must receive to qualify for election expenses reimbursement was lowered from 15 to 10 percent, while the portion of eligible expenses increased from 50 to 60 percent."

Your vote enables other parties or independants to have more spending.
While there's probably more to it than that, I haven't read the whole
thing, this is one reason to vote.

ers

[guzzy]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Can someone do that if they wanted to or is it illegal?

what do you think the sponsorhip scandal was? Liberals buying votes in Quebec

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy McGillicuddy

Voter turnout in Tuesday's federal election was the lowest ever, just 58%.

I struggle to understand why people don't vote. I think democracy is too important to take for granted. But I also realize the current state of affairs turns a lot of people off. Canadians are tired of the rhetoric, they want to see someone who does what they promise they'll do. Many others just don't care.

Are you one of the 42% of Canadians that didn't vote? Why not.

Didn't vote as I'm overseas, and it's a pain in the butt. Add that to the fact that they way it was called - we had to submit an absentee ballot ages only a couple of weeks after the election was called, and ironically enough, I was back in Canada for a visit and missed the deadline. That, and I don't feel qualified to vote as I haven't lived in Canada in ages, and aren't abreast of the issues. (My biggest issue with Canada right now is that CBC doesn't broadcast HNIC to IP addresses outside of Canada, actually).

I could always vote party lines, and though I lean Liberal I've never had a great love for any of the political parties in Canada. Ultimately though, the fact of the matter is that none of this will actually impact me on a day to day basis, so I'm not willing to expend a lot of energy to do something that would provide me with nothing in return.