High voter turnouts on Saskatchewan horizon?
A non-partisan election sign urges citizens to vote on Fleet Street in Regina. The previous provincial election saw a large number of Saskatchewan voters, but a local political science professor says we may see fewer ballots this time around. Photo by Tory Gillis.
by Tory Gillis
University of Regina student Ryan Tonita is gearing up to vote in his first provincial election. The 19-year old said his friends aren’t so interested.
“When I tried telling my friends about all of the Occupy Wall Street protests going on, they just said they don’t care. And I said, ‘You should because it affects you,’ but they just don’t (care),” he said.
Yet by choosing to vote, Tonita is likely leaving his apathetic friends with the minority in Saskatchewan.
Fewer Canadians are turning up to vote in elections across the country, but Saskatchewan continues to record high voter turnout. The May 2011 federal election saw only 61 per cent of elegible Canadians casting their ballots. In the most recent provincial election in Saskatchewan, 76 per cent headed to the polls.
“I vote because I want to have a say in what happens in our province and I think young people are really underrepresented in our province,” said Tonita.
According to Jim Farney, an assistant professor in political science at U of R, people who live in smaller centres are more likely to be politically engaged.
“That rural areas tend to have not seen turnout depress as much as urban ones, so that helps Saskatchewan obviously…. The federal high (for voter turnout by province) in Canada would be 79 or 80 per cent and so Saskatchewan’s 76 per cent is really high.”
Recent elections in Manitoba and Ontario saw turnout as low as 55 per cent and 49 per cent.
Elections Saskatchewan’s communications officer Daniel Bogdon said he’s not sure if Saskatchewan will also see fewer voters this time around.
“It seems the trend across the country for the provincial elections is that (voter turnout) has been way down so far. We’re hoping that for our election it won’t follow the trend,” he said.
Farney predicts lower numbers this time around, because it doesn’t appear to be a close race. An early poll conducted for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post suggested 63.4 per cent of decided voters would choose the Saskatchewan party, while the New Democratic Party was far behind with 26.1 per cent. The survey, conducted by Praxis Analytics sampled opinions from 800 people over the phone in early September.
Bogdon said Elections Saskatchewan aims to keep high voter turnouts, though the non-partisan body mainly works to make sure eligible voters can cast their ballot.
“Our emphasis is to remove barriers and make it as accessible as possible but at the end of the day, it’s the voters who decide whether it’s worth it to come out,” he said.
Saskatchewan’s 27th provincial general election is set for November 7, 2011.