[hamiltonguyo]

As a premise to where i'm comming from, a democracy needs voters too function, currently we have very few voters compared to other countries. Should we make Voting mandatory? It would not be criminal, if you didn't go to the polls you would be fined, any fines would go towards paying for the election. This mandatory voting system is used in other countries with success, should it be used in ours?

[797]

Son......how old are you??

[hamiltonguyo]

I am 15 since June. Please do not use this as an excuse to take me less seriously, I am involved here because I like talking about this sort of stuff and because it is the only place where I can talk about serious issues that affect our country without being shunned.

[797]

hamiltonguyo hamiltonguyo:

I am 15 since June. Please do not use this as an excuse to take me less seriously, I am involved here because I like talking about this sort of stuff and because it is the only place where I can talk about serious issues that affect our country without being shunned.

Ok...that's cool...as a matter of fact I'll give you "props" for being involved.

Good for you..We need more young people to get involved..

[797]

hamiltonguyo hamiltonguyo:

I am 15 since June. Please do not use this as an excuse to take me less seriously, I am involved here because I like talking about this sort of stuff and because it is the only place where I can talk about serious issues that affect our country without being shunned.

Ok...that's cool...as a matter of fact I'll give you "props" for being involved.

Good for you..We need more young people to get involved..

[Poisson]

If we make a freedom mandatory, then it's no longer a freedom.

I'm against mandatory votings.

[hamiltonguyo]

Thank you very much sir

[Delwin]

If voting became mandatory, then those who really do not care about politics would just be adding to the randomness of the whole event, not to say that most voters are making a well informed decision as it is but, I would not want my government to be decided by wheel of fortune.Even if you forced someone to vote, you could not force him to give a hoot.

[hamiltonguyo]

Has bad things like that happened in countries with mandatory voting? no... why? because the people who are the most opinionated are the ones who don't vote. I know an adult who is ALWAYS complaining about the government but he tells me he dosn't plan to vote. The truly apathetic people will enjoy there day and pay a 50$ or so fine to not vote. People who fit in between will have watched the news and would know what was going on.

[Delwin]

Who is to say that bad things have not happened? what has happened is that people with no knowledge of the issues and no concern over public affair have been forced to voice an empty opinion on the rest of the electorate thereby adding a meaningless degree of variance to what informed people actually want. Instead of a government who represent the views of the people, they have a government who represents the views of the people + the non views of people, this does not seem democratic to me, and I would say that when this occurs, this is a bad thing.

[hamiltonguyo]

Almost everyone watches the news and alot read the paper between the two the majority of people who don't vote are informed they mostly don't vote because they are fed up with politics. Those who are lazy will pay the small fine. Strangely it seems the people who don't vote are the people who are most vocal about how bad the government is...

[Delwin]

OK but again, there will be a percentage of people who are not interested, but do not want to pay the fine, it is not enough to say that most people watch the news or most people read the paper, because the very use of the word most implies that there are some who don't. So essentially what you are doing is adding an element of ignorance to the outcome of the election, any way you slice it.

[hamiltonguyo]

yes there will be ignorance but not on a massive scale a couple of 100 voters each riding mayby. They will probably distribute about equally between parties or decline ballots with net next to zero effect on the outcome

[VicVega]

Poisson Poisson:

If we make a freedom mandatory, then it's no longer a freedom.

I'm against mandatory votings.

Well said. By forcing people to line up at the polls we move one step closer the Stalinistic government that we have been sitting at the edge of.

Anyone who does not belive what I just wrote need only look to this end of the country and the Candaian Wheat Board, in which farmers are forced to sell their wheat to them, for a set price when they could get more money for it by selling it direct to the states themselves. Doesn't sound too free market to me.

Lets all remeber that Iraq could have been technically considered a democracy as well. People over there voted to. One choice mind you, but they still voted. Voting is a privaledge, something that people in the Western world seem to have forgoten, and like all privaledges it does not have to be exercised.

Voter apathy in this country comes down to one thing only: a general lack of choice. The Conservatives sounding like Liberals, the NDP sounding like Liberals, and the Liberals, well......... sounding like themselves. The voter apathy also comes from an entire generation only ever seeing one type of government, even though they don't vote that way. It leads people to ask what's the point anymore. If we have a Conservative majority or minority this time, watch voter turn out go through the roof as people realize that change is possible.

[Scape]

Wasn't this covered?