Elections Essay- Should Voting in Canada be Mandatory by Law?

Mandatory voting has been around since Aristotle’s time, yet evidence clearly demonstrates an overwhelming amount of flaws and drawbacks to this practice. To elaborate, morphing our right to vote into an obligation is simply undemocratic and it defeats the entire purpose of Canada’s governing system. Democracy is defined as a government that reflects the people’s views; however, compulsory voting destroys just that. Furthermore, even though enforced voting ultimately heightens voter turnout, the votes do not genuinely represent the country’s visions due to a high amount of uneducated votes. Finally, instead of policy campaigning, candidates are forced to attract the public who don’t actually care about politics. It soon turns into a popularity contest rather than a showing of different platforms. As evidence supports, voting should definitely not be required by law considering all of the negative factors posed on the effectiveness of Canada’s democratic system.

From a democratic standpoint, mandatory voting diminishes Canadians’ freedom and choice. Compelling citizens to vote changes their right into a stipulation. In such a free country as Canada, why should the right to vote be treated any differently than any other of our rights and freedoms? To elaborate, we have the freedom of speech in this country. On the other hand, we are not obliged to voice our opinion. Voting should be compared in the same way. To add, if one looks back at Canada’s history, past events will also prove downfalls to this concept. To explain, in 1917, the Canadian government made the mistake of invoking conscription. Basically, conscription is mandatory military service- all males, excluding some exceptions, must go to war. Unfortunately, this divided the country as the French were quite outraged. This instance is the perfect example of what may happen again if Canada was to make voting compulsory. It is true that with rights come responsibility, but forcing Canadians to vote will not solve any problems; it will only have temporary benefits.

Additionally, contrary to popular belief, commanding people to vote will not educate them anymore. We can’t assume that just because one is forced to vote, they will be discussing politics at their dinner-table. Some may argue that the government will better mirror the whole population’s views, but this cannot be deemed correct. Many citizens may find voting an annoying errand that they are obliged to do. Voters will become even more cynical than they already have proven to be. Also, many whom are uninterested in politics may just pick random candidates, also known as “donkey votes”. This disturbs the electoral process, and may lead to a misrepresented government.

Finally, requisite voting will make political parties less responsive to their constituents. To explain, candidates will no longer have to encourage citizens to vote. This will lower campaigning, and in return less people will find out about the party platforms. This will result in uneducated votes, and therefore, a government that doesn’t fully represent the country’s desires. 

As the facts prove, mandatory voting has quite a load of drawbacks. Instead of trying to fix the “symptom” of voter turnout, we should deal with the actual “disease”. In other words, the the government should try to inform young kids and adolescents about politics, and keep them aware and interested. As a number of studies show, the demographic of young people has minimal voter turnout rates. We can turn this situation around by educating youth on party platforms, political issues, and current events. As of now, we have done quite a bit already. For example, in British Columbia, the curriculum of Social Studies 11 includes a unit on Canada’s politics. To add, our school hosted an All Candidates Meeting recently, which raised awareness and answered questions for us students. Events like these are real methods that can actually better Canada’s voting system in the long run. It is quite evident that compulsory voting would have multiple negative effects on Canada’s government, and there are a variety of alternatives to consider instead.

This video also supports my opinion and gives insight on this issue:

References:

Bardeesy, Karim. "The Globe and Mail." The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc., 25 Apr.    2011.Web. 15 May 2013. <<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/mandatory-voting-cons-more-voters-doesnt-mean-increased-awareness/article577809/>>.