Murphy’s Logic: Everyone needs to vote

Steve Murphy discusses ideas for improving voter turnout in Canada.

In what was described as one of the most consequential elections of all time – close to one third of Canadians didn’t vote.

At close to 69 per cent, the turnout was the best since 1993, which is good, but it’s still not good enough. Consider this: more people didn’t vote at all, than supported the party that won.

People cite many reasons - most are excuses - for not voting, and most of those, are not good enough either.

Advance voting has made it easy to find the few minutes it takes, on any number of days.

Those who believe their vote doesn’t make a difference, are simply wrong. They distort the system and the outcomes by ceding greater power to those who do vote. The nine million who didn’t vote on April 28 bear some responsibility for the outcome – like it or not.

Voting is a duty. And in some countries, it’s compulsory. Australians can be fined up to $255 for not showing up at the polls. They don’t have to mark a ballot, but they do have to drop a ballot in the box. And more than 90 per cent of them do.

And Australia is but one of more than a dozen countries where voting is the law.

We should consider something similar in this country or rather than penalizing people who don’t vote, perhaps we should reward those who do with a voter tax credit.

And until we reach a consensus on electoral reform, ideally a form of proportional representation – let’s satisfy the sometimes-legitimate complaint that “I don’t like any of them” by including a none of the above option, on every ballot, in every election.

The goal must be to get every person to be part of the process.