Mandatory voting is wrong
Attempts to enact legislation forcing Canadians to vote would be pointless
In a June 9 Cape Breton Post editorial entitled “Make It Mandatory,” an effort was put forth to persuade readers that government should punish voters for choosing not to cast their ballots.
A question immediately comes to mind: does the writer truly understand what a free society is? In the fervor to compel Canadians to take part in a system that ostensibly bestows our freedoms upon us, the writer has suggested that we surrender yet another freedom to do so.
It would be difficult to argue rationally that a citizenry forced to vote could be defined as “free,” as the ability to act voluntarily is suppressed. The penalty suggested by this newspaper to be imposed upon the already overburdened voters is, as always, financial.
To be clear, voting is a right and not an obligation to be enforced under threat of penalty. The assertion that mandatory voting is “in the interest of the public good” is fundamentally flawed. Canadians have several quasi-constitutional rights, rights which are guaranteed under the Canadian Bill of Rights. Any law, provision, act, or statute later enacted which contradicts the Canadian Bill of Rights cannot legally prevail.
For example, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of religion to all Canadians. Several prominent religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses view the decision to take part in an election as being based upon their personal responsibility to God alone. Any law forcing them to vote will infringe upon this guaranteed freedom, and thus the guaranteed right to religious freedom would prevail over any new mandatory voting law.
While the right to freedom of speech in Canada is far from absolute, it does guarantee us the right not to speak. When we choose not to vote we are exercising this form of free speech. Any attempt to force voters to the polls, under threat of penalty, infringes upon this right. Again, the right to free speech would prevail over any new mandatory voting law.
As these examples demonstrate, any attempt to enact legislation forcing Canadians to vote would be pointless, or as the lawyers like to say, frivolous. It would commence an expensive legal quagmire, an endless and meaningless courtroom drama that would benefit no one but the lawyers involved. And of course, the taxpayers would be on the hook for all those millions in legal bills once the dust settles.
The editorial in question begins with the declaration that “apathy is boring.” Disappointingly, at no point does it ever attempt to further examine this so-called apathy in search of its root cause. Rather than impulsively forcing voters to the polls, it would be far less boring (and significantly more productive) to ponder precisely why Canadian voters are collectively declining to exercise their right to vote. If we don’t understand the problem, no new legislation could possibly produce the solution.
The very term “voter apathy” is misleading, for it implies a growing attitude of laziness among Canadians, and that’s insulting. It implies that the problem is us when in reality it is largely the ineffective system itself. Voters are becoming alienated and are losing faith in this system because it doesn’t benefit them anymore. Every few years we go to the polls to exercise a right that many now view as meaningless because voting is now perceived as completely ineffective as a means of initiating positive change. We see the impact, with record numbers of Canadians renouncing their role in the election process. Can anyone remember the last time their standard of living improved in any meaningful way after an election? It’s a valid question.
The perception is this: only the politicians and their cronies win, and life goes on unchanged for the voter. Mandatory voting, in addition to violating our rights as outlined above, merely obscures the root issue. It cannot hope to alleviate a widespread loss of faith in a system of government that quite clearly is failing to provide voters with the means to do what the government ostensibly exists to provide in the first place, that being the means to allow its citizens to pursue happiness and a better way of life.
Sadly, government largely obstructs those pursuits now, explaining so-called “voter apathy” quite succinctly.
“Voters are becoming alienated and are losing faith in this system because it doesn’t benefit them anymore.”