London North byelection shows need for mandatory voting law

I was quietly (for a change) optimistic that Elizabeth May might carry the day for the Greens in last Monday's London North byelection. Although Liberal candidate, Glen Pearson won, the Green's second place showing represented a dramatic increase in support relative to past elections. But in our first-across-the-post electoral system, "relative" is all that really matters, isn't it? The fact is, only 42.8% of the riding's voters even bothered to show up to vote, despite the fact that this was one of the most hotly contested, broadly covered byelections in recent memory. Every party, including the Greens ponied up in a big way to try to get the vote out. What, pray tell, did those 50,000 North Londonites do while they were not voting last Monday?

By staying away in droves, the election was handed to Glen Pearson with just 15% of the pool of possible votes. While the Greens are making hay out of the fact they garnered 25.9% of the tally, the reality is that only 9% of the riding actually cast a vote for Elizabeth May, despite the fact that the GPC mounted a good strong fight, with volunteers spread across the country phoning London North voters while an army of canvassers criss-crossed the riding.

I'm as cynical about our majoritarian electoral system as anyone, but this is all we've got right now. Since the people we put in power occasionally send us to die to "protect our way of life" and to "guarantee our freedom", the least a person of voting age can do is to show up and mark an X when the time comes.

Clearly, it's time we changed the election act to require our citizens to vote and to levy fines against those who don't bother. Australia has such a system and averages a 95% turnout. It has been noted that mandatory voting results in a larger number of spoiled ballots and may actually skew the results in favour of liberal-leaning parties by bringing out larger numbers of "the poor and disenfranchised" [Slate]. So what! At least after voting, the poor will no longer be disenfranchised. Mandatory voting won't necessarily give us better government, but everyone will share equally in blame for whatever government we elect.