• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
South Muskoka Doppler

South Muskoka Doppler

Read Local

  • Home
    • All Stories
    • Community Guidelines
  • COVID-19
  • News
  • Community
  • Commentary
    • Letters
  • Business
    • Professionally Speaking
  • Sports
  • Obituaries
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
  • Events
    • Event Listings
    • Add Your Event
  • Speak Up, South Muskoka!
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • North Muskoka
  • Art Fx
You are here: Home / Commentary / Does Canada need to follow Australia’s lead with mandatory, preferential voting? | Commentary
A map showing the unofficial results of Ontario's 2022 election. (iPolitics)

Does Canada need to follow Australia’s lead with mandatory, preferential voting? | Commentary

By Matt Driscoll On June 3, 2022 Commentary

Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Email this to someone
email
Print this page
Print

In the wake of a provincial election that handed Doug Ford’s Conservatives a second majority, a lingering question remains: why is voter apathy so high?

Despite 10 days of advance polls that were open 12 hours per day on most of those days, a mail-in option, and a 12-hour voting window on election day, Ontario still saw its lowest voter turnout in history. Early Elections Ontario data from yesterday’s election shows that only about 43 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

One wonders what the outcome would have been if voting were mandatory, and the way votes are counted were different.

Let’s look to our Aussie friends for another way.

Australia just had a federal election last month. More than 90 per cent of voters cast ballots, a number typical of all of the country’s elections. Why? One reason is that voting has been compulsory in Australia since 1924, with a small (A$20) fine levied against those who don’t. (The fine can be waived if a voter has a “valid and sufficient” reason for not voting.) 

Australia is not the only country where citizens are legally required to vote—Belgium, Brazil, and Peru are among the countries around the world that have some form of compulsory voting.

Australia also has a preferential voting system. Voters rank candidates rather than choosing just one. If no candidate has an absolute majority (more than 50 per cent of the votes), then the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded and the second choice on each of the ballots cast for that candidate are added to the other candidates’ totals. This process continues until one candidate has a majority of votes.

The Australian system ensures that for those voters whose first choice didn’t win, their second (and perhaps third) at least has the chance to be counted. 

While the system has its detractors, with some saying that if citizens have the right to vote, they should also have the right not to vote, most seem to accept the system which ensures that no vote is “wasted”. 

Contrast that with Ontario, where just 18 per cent of the more than 10 million eligible voters in the province supported the government that will now rule for another four years.

Ontario saw a significantly higher voter turnout in the 2018 election, with 57 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot. But even then, that translated to support for the winning Conservative party from only about 23 per cent of registered voters.

Or consider the last federal election, which had a more respectable 62 per cent voter turnout, but the Liberals won 47 per cent of the seats thanks to 32 per cent of the votes, representing just 20 per cent of Canada’s 27,366,397 registered voters.

In local polls, MPP-elect Graydon Smith received 45 per cent of the ballots cast on June 2, but that equates to only 26 per cent of registered voters in the riding.

It’s no wonder Canadian voters are disillusioned.

A hat tip to Kai Brach’s Dense Discovery newsletter, where I first learned of Australia’s voting system.

Don’t miss out on Doppler!

Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!

Click here to support local news

Reader Interactions

Join the discussion:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments are moderated. Please ensure you include both your first and last name and abide by our community guidelines. Submissions that do not include the commenter's full name or that do not abide by our community guidelines will not be published.

Primary Sidebar

  • Recent Stories
  • Popular
  • August 6, 2022 3

    Is Muskoka going to the dogs?

  • July 18, 2022 3

    Councillor proposes Bracebridge-wide item swap weekends

  • August 8, 2022 2

    Muskoka Lakes considers indoor lighting restrictions

  • July 21, 2022 1

    Muskoka-wide crime spree lands man behind bars

  • August 8, 2022 1

    What on earth has happened to us? | Commentary

  • August 14, 2022 0

    How are we doing in our contributions to mitigate climate change? 

  • August 13, 2022 0

    Beaver Creek visitor charged with several offences

  • August 13, 2022 0

    Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary seeks your support caring for wildlife in distress

  • August 13, 2022 0

    Letters: Tenuous taxi situation in Muskoka

  • August 12, 2022 0

     District passes accidental water leak policy

  • 2021 Federal Election (1)
  • A Sponsored Profile (6)
  • Advertise (1)
  • Art Fx (13)
  • Breaking (2)

Footer

About Doppler

Established by a bunch of local news hounds, Doppler strives to be the go-to source for people wanting to know more about what is going on their community.

We strive to provide local news that is relevant and timely. We also look to tell local stories that inspire, inform and engage.

Notice the persistent use of the word local? Our mantra is local. South Muskoka Doppler serves the communities of Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and Muskoka Lakes with features on local people doing extraordinary things, local business spotlights, news and sports coverage, all supplemented by provocative opinion pieces on topics near and far. We are working hard for you.

Feel free to drop us a line at matt.driscoll@doppleronline.ca and tell us how we are doing, what you would like to see more of, or to just say ‘Hi’.

Thank you for reading Doppler.

South Muskoka Doppler – READ LOCAL
A division of C3 Digital Media Group Inc.

Bracebridge Ontario Canada
August 14, 2022, 6:11 pm
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
25°C
real feel: 25°C
current pressure: 1020 mb
humidity: 31%
wind speed: 0 m/s N
wind gusts: 0 m/s
UV-Index: 0
sunrise: 6:18 am
sunset: 8:26 pm
© 2022 AccuWeather, Inc.
 

Recent Comments

  • Jackson Triggs on Wakes, noise and speed: Lakes survey reflects growing frustrations
  • Robert Dyment on Graydon Smith faces charges laid by private citizen
  • brian sisler on One person dead, one injured in Bracebridge shooting
  • RJR on What on earth has happened to us? | Commentary
  • RJR on Is Muskoka going to the dogs?
  • Heather Boyce on Muskoka Lakes considers indoor lighting restrictions
  • Bob Braan on Muskoka Lakes considers indoor lighting restrictions
  • Bob Braan on Is Muskoka going to the dogs?

Copyright © 2022 ·Doppler Online, a division of C3 Digital Media Group Inc. · Log in
  • About
  • Support Local News
  • Advertise with us!
  • Community Guidelines
  • Contact