Should voting be mandatory?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should voting be mandatory?". Your opponent's style: Devil's advocate

I think voting should be mandatory. Not only is it a civil duty, but it contributes to the status and well-being of our nation. As of April 28, 2025, only 69% of Canadians voted in the latest federal election. That leaves out 31% of citizens, who could very much have an opinion on what and who they want running their country, yet not enough knowledge or willingness to make a choice for themselves about it. Even 5% of these people could change the course of history by deciding to vote. My proposal is mandatorily educating citizens on the parties in Canada and what they have to offer, seeing as 32% of the non-voters simply were not interested in politics, and 34% not having the time to vote.

You're asking people to be forced to vote, then forced into political education—that's the problem right there. Mandatory voting doesn't create engaged citizens, it creates resentful ones checking boxes randomly. That 31% who didn't vote? Many made an *active choice*. Forcing them breeds low-quality votes from people who don't care, which corrupts the democratic signal. You're not protecting democracy by compelling participation, you're poisoning it with apathetic ballots that cancel out informed ones. Why should a distracted voter's forced guess carry equal weight to someone who actually researched?

Educating our citizens, in both school and post-secondary, would by nature make people more compelled to vote. Tell me, would you rather be hyper fixated about learning quadratics that only 5-10% of jobs require, or be learning about the future of your nation in which you can determine? We already force our citizens into an education by the age of four to eighteen, so what use is it to make that education's structure on concepts children will hardly be using in a day to day life? Shouldn't we be educating them on things that will affect them for the rest of their life?

You're conflating two separate issues to dodge the real problem. Yes, civic education matters—but you can teach it without the *mandate*. Countries with robust political education don't need to force votes. Switzerland does this brilliantly and voting is voluntary. Your argument proves education works on its own. The moment you add mandatory voting, you're not trusting that education anymore—you're admitting it failed and resorting to coercion. Why would you need both if education actually compels participation like you claim?

By that logic, you're admitting that you'd be fine with fully educated citizens simply not voting. It's as simple as following the law: if we tell kids in school that they are going to have to vote when they're older, like any other law, they will pay attention and abide by it.

No—I'm fine with educated citizens *choosing* not to vote because that's their right. You're conflating legal obligation with civic virtue. A law doesn't make voting meaningful, it makes it mandatory. Kids follow speed limits too, but that doesn't mean forcing them to drive makes better drivers. You're trading freedom for compliance and calling it democracy. If your education is good enough, people *want* to vote. If it's not, forcing them is tyranny dressed up as duty. Which is it really?

You claim I'm trading freedom for compliance and calling it democracy while completely ignoring the entire purpose of a democracy. Voting is what stops our country from becoming a dictatorship, and our citizens should see that as clearly as it's shown. Saying that forcing fully educated citizens to vote and calling it tyranny is simply not wanting what's best for the country. You'd rather let citizens stand down from their duties simply because they want to. How is that contributing to the well-being of a democratic nation?

You've got democracy backwards. A government that forces citizens to participate isn't protecting democracy—it's proving it's failing. Real democracies trust people to decide, even if they choose not to vote. Compulsion is the first step toward dictatorship, not away from it. You're saying "vote or else"—that's coercion, not citizenship. If your system needs to threaten people to survive, it's already broken. Why not ask yourself: why aren't Canadians *wanting* to vote without being forced? That's the real problem you should fix.