In the last federal election, about four of every 10 Canadians exercised their option to stay away from the ballot box altogether.

Next year, if larger trends hold, we may get even closer to the dismal 50-per-cent turnout figure. Is it time to take away that no-voting option from Canadians? Do we need to make voting mandatory?

The idea has surfaced twice recently in federal Liberal circles — in a questionnaire sent out to the grassroots this week and in a policy paper written for the Canada 2020 progressive thinktank in May.

Robert Asselin, a professor at the University of Ottawa and a policy adviser to Justin Trudeau during his leadership campaign, urged in his Canada 2020 paper that Canadians have a serious conversation about mandatory voting.

Asselin acknowledges the idea could rub a lot of people the wrong way.

“I won’t pretend that there are no philosophical challenges to mandatory voting,” Asselin writes. “Is it morally acceptable to force a citizen to vote? Does it infringe on his individual right as a citizen? Is it compatible with our Charter of Rights and Freedoms?”

Much of that argument turns on the old debate between rights and duties, he notes. On this score, political culture has been moving for decades toward rights and away from duty.

The pendulum has swung so far away from collective duty that we now can’t even have a sensible discussion about taxes, as argued in last fall’s bookTax is Not a Four-Letter Word, edited by Alex and Jordan Himelfarb.

There are practical considerations too, Asselin acknowledges, not least in equipping Elections Canada with the resources to make sure every citizen votes. You can almost hear the outrage now from some circles: Forced voting? Costs more money? Must be a socialist plot.

Certainly many in those same circles will be suspiciously eyeing the last question in the survey Liberals sent out this week.

“Do you support or oppose making voting mandatory?” the survey asked. “Under this system, voters would be allowed to mark ‘none of the above,’ but those who fail to cast a ballot would receive a small fine. Mandatory voting is practiced in Australia and Singapore, among other countries.”

Advisers to Trudeau warned not to read too much into the survey; it’s just a sounding-out of the grassroots on a number of policy fronts.

For what it’s worth, I support mandatory voting. A few years ago, I would have balked at the idea, but I came around to favouring systems such as Australia’s while writing a book on how our political culture has been shaped by consumerism and shopping — often not for the better.

Some of the dumbing-down of discourse, in particular, has taken place because political campaigns have become preoccupied with simply getting out the vote (often with shiny baubles) rather than a debate of ideas.

The robocalls debacle, in which two judges have now issued rulings about a widespread voter-suppression scheme in 2011, is maybe the strongest argument in favour of mandatory voting. As I’ve argued before, it would be much more difficult (and damning) for anyone to mess with Canadians’ duty to vote — far easier to keep people away from voting when they see it as optional.

As an incurable political optimist, I think citizens can still rise to a call of duty; making voting mandatory might get them thinking more seriously about their role in this dented democracy of ours.

Others — notably Don Lenihan of the Public Policy Forum (full disclosure, my spouse) — argue that the bleak turnout numbers are a useful, even necessary check on the state of our democracy. When citizens choose not to vote, he argues, that sends a powerful signal to the political class to pick up their game and engage the citizenry. Taking away that choice makes it possible for politicians to argue the system is working just fine.

Next month, incidentally, Lenihan and Postmedia columnist Andrew Coyne will be having a public debate in Ottawa about mandatory voting. (I’ll be hoping Lenihan does well, but I’m on Coyne’s side on this one.)

My worry is that some more cynical political types are perfectly happy with low turnout figures, content that a disengaged public makes it easier to govern — or worse, ignore troublesome issues and constituencies (youth, for instance.)

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So yes, as Asselin argues, maybe it is time to start talking about mandatory voting, or maybe some middle ground between choice and duty — creating greater incentives to vote (I’ve heard some argue for tax breaks.)

Or maybe, thanks to robocalls and those downward-trending turnout numbers over the decades, the conversation has already started.