Addition of None of the Candidates to all Canadian Ballots

Canada has democratically elected members of parliament and legislatures with (find out how many parties for last election) parties that can be chosen from. But what if none of these appeal to some people and they do not want to vote for any of them. The choice for some people is to not vote and that by not voting they are making their voices heard because they didnt like any of the candidates and their parties. As it is true that many use this reason as justification it does not necessarily get the right point across because the public and politicians can simply write off low number of voters as poor participation, poor advertising, or a number of other excuses that arent the intentions of those who didnt vote. The number of citizens that are voting in elections has been dropping (find numbers), but what are the reasons for this? Most likely it is that people do not like those they have to choose from and do not vote. We do not know how many use this logic because there is no accurate data of people who didnt vote because they didnt like the candidate.

It is our proposition that the governments of Canada, (federally and provincially and municipally) need to change their ballots to allow Canadians to reflect their true vote at each election. To do this the ballots must carry a box that reads None of the Candidates. If we are to truly have democratic elections to allow citizens to have their voices heard then this is an absolute requirement. Right now we have an ultimatum; pick one of these people or your voice is not heard. That is what is being said each time someone steps into a ballot box in Canada. A vote for no one is still a vote and one that is just as powerful as any other. Freedom to choose is a core part of every democracy and that people have not been allowed to choose from all the options so far is a travesty. The Russian Federation has this on their ballots and its democracy is only 16 years old. Ours is 139 years old and it is time to enfranchise everyone on Election Day not just those that pick a candidate.

This change could engage thousands of people who do not vote every year in protest. It would increase the number of people who would vote and get people more involved as well as giving everyone a chance to have their voices heard. If this leads to 1\% or 99\% checking off the None of the Candidates box it is something that needs to be looked at. For a government to govern its entire people it needs to know what they are thinking. We will finally know how many people do not think the process and/or the people involved in government are right and just and this should force each party to rethink what they stand for as representatives of the people.

It is for these reasons that we need this added to the ballot and by singing this petition you are making your voice heard as we hope to do by adding None of the Candidates as a option to vote on each ballot.