Another group who won't be found rushing to the polls come election day is religious
groups such as Christians. About 9.5 million Canadian Christians choose not to vote.
This is mostly because Christians believe in separating faith and politics, and because
they don't that there is an option that is both religious and political. These options aren't
given very much attention by the media which is a shame because of the Christians who
voted and the Christians who chose not to vote, either group would have made up more
votes than the winning party won with in the 2006 election (Gray, 2006.) Consider for a
moment how powerful that many votes could be if they were all put towards something
good such as making abortion illegal or stopping violence rather than just being 9.5
million wasted opportunities.
The last non-voting group to be discussed in this paper is the people who choose not to
vote simply because they don't see any good choices on the ballot. These
people are not going to be showing up at the voting polls because of their personal
attitudes towards politics.
Some people blame the polititians saying they are selfish,
unaccountable and untrustworthy. Others may feel a sense of meaningless when they
consider voting, a feeling that they're vote will fail to make a difference. The third
attitude people tend to have towards politics is one of apathy. The event of the elections
aren't exciting enough for them or simply do not concern them at all.
(Elections Canada, 2003.)
The voter turnout is a concern in today's government; it is on the decline and
statistics show this will continue to be the case (Needham, 2004.) That is unless there
are measures taken to increase the number of visitors to the polls. One of the solutions to
this problem might be to implement compulsory voting in Canada, much the same as it
is in several other countries world-wide. Voter turn-out is 13 per cent higher in countries
where the voting is compulsory and penalties are imposed for not voting
(Elections Canada, 2006.) So perhaps if fines or jail time were given as penalty for
disobeying a civic duty, more Canadians would venture out on election day.
Another strategy may be to educate children more about how the political system works.
Young voters may be staying away from the ballot box because they do not have as much
political education as the generations preceding them. Studies show that youth read less
newspapers and have less knowledge about prominent political figures. These facts are
related to their failure to vote (Canadian Council on Learning.) If Young voters were
given basic knowledge on how their country was run and who exactly was running it, the
young voter population would most likely increase.
As for the Christians, it is the job of the media to let people know things that they
have a right to know.
This includes giving more attention to the parties that are both
religious and political such as the Christian Heritage Party (Grey, 2006.) Lastly, the issue
of people's attitudes toward their government lies solely with the polititians themselves.
With scandals like the Sponsorship Scandal marking up the record, it's no wonder the
morale of the public is down, and it's no wonder nobody trusts the polititians enough to
make the effort to go out and vote. If the polititians want to see some effort on the part of
the public, they have to learn to show some in return.
In conclusion, the right to vote is something Canadians should be proud to have.
Every Canadian no matter their age, religion, race or knowledge should be able to walk
up to the ballot box and cast their vote with nothing but confidence in the decision they
made.
