Justin Trudeau adviser backs mandatory voting, preferential ballots - Politics - CBC News
Canada should adopt mandatory voting and a preferential ballot to re-engage citizens in the political system and reinforce democracy, says a new paper by an adviser to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
The analysis, by academic Robert Asselin for the think-tank Canada 2020, comes as Conservative backbencher Michael Chong pushes a bill aimed at rebalancing power between the Prime Minister's Office and the House of Commons.
Asselin, of the University of Ottawa's graduate school of public and international affairs, points to the recent Ontario election as more evidence of the gulf between Canadians and the political system.
In that case, approximately 52.1 per cent of eligible voters turned out to cast a ballot.
Asselin proposes the type of mandatory voting that Australia has instituted, as well as a preferential ballot where the second and third choices of voters are applied until one candidate achieves more than 50 per cent of the vote.
"I'm pushing mandatory voting and preferential ballots so that citizens don't see democratic reform just as reforming institutions, but they see it as something that belongs to us and if we don't take care of it like anything else in our lives ... it will just fall apart," Asselin said in an interview.
Trudeau is also a supporter of a preferential ballot, having made it a plank of his leadership platform.
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Well there's another reason not to vote for the Liberals.
They're screwing themselves once again..... the last time they screwed up was with the Carbon Tax idea with Dion.
Now this?
Yes, let's force people to vote for someone even when there isn't an option on the ballot that suits their own interests.... that's Democracy for you.
It doesn't work here in Australia.... people only have to head to the poll station and get their name marked off as showing up. After that, they don't have to vote for anybody or can screw up the ballot by putting a ***** on it, etc.
In the books, it looks like you have a huge voter turnout, but you don't, you just have a huge amount of people show up to mark off their names so they don't get fined.
Forcing people to vote doesn't make the people more engaged in politics and elections.
You don't force people to vote for you or anybody else by threatening them with fines, you engage people and make them want to vote for you and actually want to go to the polls.
It doesn't solve the root problem and that problem is with politicians and political parties not doing their jobs and properly listening to the people they represent.
Here in Australia, due to forced voting, political parties don't actually have to do much work. They give out their cookie cutter responses, say and promise whatever they want, people are forced to the polls to vote anyways, they get their election, take power and then do whatever the hell they want.
Tony Abbott is a perfect example of this. He gave out a pile of promises and then turned around and broke pretty much every single one of them without any real regard for those that voted for him in the first place.
Does he and his party care?
Nope.... all that will happen is his party will either remain in power or become opposition once again as preferential voting will protect the main two parties like it has so far.
And that's why the Liberals want that too.... so they can ensure they don't end up in third place again and the Liberals and Conservatives will tiddily wink back and forth as opposition and main parties like they always have.
At this point, if this is the Liberals agenda to get back up in the polls, I'd recommend every single Canadian get to the polls on their own accord and vote for anybody other than the Liberals so Forced Voting doesn't happen in Canada.
Hell, vote Conservative, I don't care, but the Liberals need to be sent yet another message that this is something Canada and Canadians don't want..... the Liberals need to start "LISTENING" to the people, not deciding for them and forcing them to do stuff.
That's not Democracy, and when you need to force people to vote by seeking legal action against them, then you have no Democracy and you truly don't believe in the system.
Low voter turnout exists, we all know that, but rather than trying to mask the problem by putting the onus on the people, how about these idiots try and figure out what the real problem is (Themselves) and put some god damn effort into their job so they attract more voters?