We have all heard the saying “if you don’t vote, don’t complain”. Or something to that effect.
Voter turnout has been on a downward spiral since the first federal election in 1867. In 1867, the population of Canada was 3,230,000 and with 361,018 eligible voters, 268,387 Canadians cast their vote.
According to Elections Canada: the average voter turnout for Canada’s general elections since 1867 has been 70.7 per cent; the highest voter turnouts were in 1958, 1960, and 1963, when voter turnout was over 79 per cent; the lowest voter turnout on record was in 2008, when voter turnout fell to only 58.8 per cent. Voter turnout in the 2011 federal election, at 61.4 per cent, was the third lowest in Canadian history and voter turnout rose sharply in the 2015 federal election to 68.5 per cent, the highest turnout since 1993.