According to Elections Canada, an estimated 4.7 million Canadians didn’t want to wait for election day and instead cast their ballots at advance polls, a 29 per cent increase over 2015.
Whether this is because of keeners wanting to get their homework done early or an indication of a growing appetite for democratic participation won’t be known until we see the final voter turnout numbers. In either case, it’s good to see people making use of advance polls, especially when compared to our neighbour to the south, where strategically shutting down polls is a tactic in voter suppression.
But we aren’t pleased to see Canadian parties and partisans increasingly copying U.S.-style negative campaigns, which studies have shown are their own form of voter suppression. It’s been an exceptionally nasty campaign in which we’ve had a hard time hearing policy talk over the shouts of personal attacks.
We urge you to look past the nastiness, spend some time getting informed, think about the direction you want the country to go in and vote accordingly on Monday, if you haven’t already. Don’t let their behaviour turn you off of your sacred right to have your say in an election that will have consequences that last a lifetime.
Also, consider it as good practice. As we publish this final editorial before the election, many polls indicate we are headed for a hung Parliament with no clear majority government in waiting. If these adults seeking to run our Canada cannot find a way to behave more civilly after the election, we’re surely headed back to the polls in a few months. And there is such a thing as too much democracy.
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