A survey released Feb. 22 by Statistics Canada (StatsCan) revealed the 2015 federal election had the highest youth voter turnout in decades.
About 67 per cent of youth between ages 18-24 voted in the 42nd Canadian federal election, up from just 55 per cent in 2011.
The surge in youth voters was the biggest reason for the increase in overall voter turnout from the 2011 election, according to StatsCan.
A study for Elections Canada in January 2015 by Antoine Bilodeau, associate professor of political science at Concordia University, and Luc Turgeon, associate professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, found that youth “systematically abstain from voting at every election” at every level of government.
The study also found that youth had weaker ties to political parties, less defined political opinions, and were less likely to see voting as a civic duty compared to older people.
Carleton University journalism professor and political expert Chris Waddell said young people don’t see themselves “being affected as much by election results,” which explains poor youth voter turnout in past elections.
He also said the difficulty of voting while living away from home is a major contributing factor to poor youth attendance.
StatsCan’s survey asked non-voting participants why they abstained from voting in the October election.
The most popular reason given for not participating was indifference.
The survey said 33 per cent of non-voters didn’t vote because they were disinterested in politics.
On the other hand, 11 per cent of youth voters aged 18-24 cited the electoral process itself as their reason for not voting, with difficulties such as proving their identity or getting on the voter list stopping them from filling out their ballot.
Elections Canada reported actual voter turnout at 68 per cent, compared to StatsCan’s result of 77 per cent.
Jeremy Weeks, Labour Statistics Division at StatsCan, stated the discrepancy between the two figures is due to the voluntary nature of the StatsCan survey.
“[People] who do not vote may be more likely to be underrepresented in a voluntary survey because they do not choose to respond. Or, because of the fact that voting has a positive perception in society, persons who did not vote but do respond to the survey may be inclined to report themselves as voters,” he said.
Waddell said he is “not too confident” on the validity of the StatsCan survey.
He added the problem with a voluntary survey is that responders often “don’t remember or simply don’t tell the truth”.
Weeks explained “while the over-reporting of voter turnouts in surveys like this is a known phenomenon, the results of this study are measurably consistent when compared to the 2011 Labour Force Survey supplementary study.”
Waddell said a possible explanation for the increase in young voters was “more effort by Elections Canada to reach young people [and] the voters on campus to ensure that students had the opportunity to vote.”
He mentioned the mobilization effort by Elections Canada to reach young voters—in particular, the unique pilot project by Elections Canada that set up 72 offices where people could vote in advance.
Special polling stations were placed on university campuses, leading to over 70,000 voters—including students—getting a chance to vote at their convenience.
While the youth voting rate last October was very encouraging, Weeks did not have an answer for the surprising youth turnout.
“This survey commissioned by Elections Canada focused on the reasons for not voting. Unfortunately, we did not collect information about why people did vote. This would be a great focus for the future, but at this time we do not have this information,” Weeks said.
However, he said StatsCan will be publishing a report on voter turnout in the coming months.
