{"id":936,"date":"2014-07-04T16:37:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T23:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinwavesmedia.com\/wordpress\/?p=936"},"modified":"2015-06-16T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T23:20:32","slug":"936","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinwavesmedia.com\/wordpress\/936\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing Ontario\u2019s political system in response to the clear crisis of low voter turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PollingF\"Democracy Watch called for democratic changes to Ontario\u2019s political system in response to the clear crisis of low voter turnout in the provincial election. Initial results show that the Ontario Liberals have won a majority of 58 of 107 seats with the support of only 19.5% of eligible voters, which raises serious questions about their mandate to govern, let alone implement any specific law or policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only 52.1% of eligible voters cast a ballot (the second lowest turnout ever (tied with 2011), and 38% of the ballots cast were for the Liberals.<\/p>\n

This is a growing trend across Canada, we had similar low voter turnout numbers in BC in 2013 and in 2011 the Federal election turnout was the third lowest in Canadian history. We speak to Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch about this trend, what are the reasons behind it and what can be done to improve the system making voting relevant once again to the millions of Canadians that have become indifferent to the process.<\/p>\n