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OTTAWA – Among the controversial proposals in the Conservative government’s proposed Fair Elections Act is one to eliminate Elections Canada’s abilities to run campaigns encouraging Canadians to get out and vote – no matter who for.

According to Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s minister of state for democratic reform, Elections Canada’s outreach campaigns – which began in 2003 in response to decades of declining voter turnout, particularly among youth — have failed to combat the troubling trend seen in Canada and virtually every western democracy.

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“I am not arguing that Elections Canada’s advertising drives turnout down,” Poilievre said in an email to Postmedia News on Wednesday. “Rather, it fails to drive turnout up, because it does not address the practical obstacles that prevent many from voting.”

But Poilievre’s equation doesn’t add up for experts who study the complex phenomenon of voter turnout.