Avalon

Currently Nova Scotia has a Select Committee on Participation in the Democratic Process looking into declining voter turnout. The hearings finished last night at Province House. No doubt one topic that will be discussed is compulsory voting. Australia uses it and has very high turnouts, so why not try it here?

We often hear that voting is a ‘civic duty’, but it is more accurate to say that voting is a ‘civic right’ and no free and independent people such as Atlantic Canadians should ever allow a government to force them to exercise their rights no matter how wonderful the goal. Put simply, it is no ones business but the individual whether they vote or not.

People should be free not to participate if they believe not voting is important. Jehovah Witnesses, for instance, believe that any form of political involvement is wrong so they typically do not vote. Not voting is also a valid method of dissent against governance and is why totalitarian states that maintain a veneer of democracy are always careful to manufacture near 100% turnouts. Any government that interferes in that freedom is acting the tyrant.

Coercing citizens to vote only masks the real problem. Our declining voter turnout indicates growing dissent with a political system that needs reforms; separation of powers with an independent and effective Legislature, fair elections, direct election of our leaders, recall, Citizen’s Initiative. Introducing compulsory voting will only paper over the defects and delay needed reforms.

Nova Scotia celebrated the 250th anniversary of the first glimmering of democracy in British North America on October 2nd as part of a yearlong celebration called D250. The first meeting of an elected lower house was an important occurrence, the first step towards better governance and better democracy in North America. Every Atlantic Canadian should be proud. While modern day Canada may attempt to co-opt this occurrence as a ‘Canadian’ event, it must be remembered that the reformers who met on Oct 2, 1758 in downtown Halifax were exercising the ancient rights of English peoples in the English Atlantic colonies as a spiritual continuation of the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and as a precursor to the American Revolution.

The honoured event was a step forward in Atlantic Canada’s democratic evolution; some would say a very small step. By law, both voters and candidates had to be white men, at least 21 years old, be members of the Church of England and property owners. By early 1848 the system needed to be updated and Joseph Howe made a name for himself by doing just that; moving us towards a better system of governance. New Brunswick followed in a few months. Another step forward for Atlantic Canadian democracy.

Democracy cannot sleep, it needs to keep growing and adapting to the needs of citizens. As always the elites in power say little change is necessary. In Atlantic Canada our form of government, now older than the theory of Evolution and the light bulb, needs to be updated. Like Mr. Howe and those October 2nd Reformers new advocates from outside the system must come forward.

It’s not who got elected where, it’s not the outcome of various ‘grudge’ matches around the country, or the final seat totals, it’s not even the resulting minority government for Mr. Harper. The most important result is buried in the data from Elections Canada, a footnote really. It is the historically low turnout of 59.1%, the first time ever that less than six out of ten people have voted. And that is based on registered voters, estimates claim an additional 5% to 15% of potential voters are not registered and therefore do not vote. Including this fact places the actual turnout at around 50%, perhaps less!

Why are people not coming out to vote? Disinterest in or cynicism of politics in general? We have always had that. No, the reason is the growing knowledge that our representatives do not really represent us, the voters. Yes they ‘represent’ us in a superficial fashion, they stand for our riding. But they don’t express our political wishes on the issues of the day since the party dictates their votes in the House. So voters are, correctly, stating ‘why should I vote if my representative will not vote for me’.

Shrinking turnout is a bad thing. Less and less involvement in the democratic process de-stabilizes the whole system (for instance Mr. Harper’s claim to government rests on only 5.2 million votes out of 23.4 million potential votes, that’s less than one in four). However low turnout does point to something good; more and more citizens are becoming political sophisticates and can see how they are sidelined politically and this sets the stage for the coming rebirth of our democracy in terms of political and electoral reform.