Voters and Nonvoters in Canadian Federal Elections

1Voter participation in Canadian elections has dropped precipitously in the last three decades. The average voter turnout was 74.5 % in the three elections in the 1970s, 73.3 % in the three elections in the 1980s, 69.0 % in the two parliamentary elections in the 1990s, and 63.2% (adjusted) in the three elections this decade. (Elections Canada, 2007). Election officials and scholars have concluded that the source of much of the decline lies in generational change, as younger Canadians are not entering the electorate at the same rates as earlier cohorts did. (Pammett and LeDuc 2003) In part, younger cohorts ’ participation in elections appears to have been dampened by reduced competitiveness in ridings across much of the country, which has provided a weaker incentive to participate among young adults who have not already “learned to vote. ” (Johnston, Matthew, and Bittner, 2007) The combination of the decline in competitiveness across Canada and the recent increase in competitiveness at the presidential level in the U.S. (both nationally and in many states) contributed to the fact that, in 2004, voter turnout in Canada was actually lower than in the United States when comparable measures are used. (Martinez 2008, 354-356.) The large decrease in turnout naturally leads to questions about who the nonvoters are