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It’s an astonishing contrast. In the last federal election, voter turnout for people aged 65 to 74 was an estimated 75 per cent. The rate for people aged 18-24 was 38 per cent — half that of the older cohort.

Cool, eh? In other words, the people deciding Canada’s future are the ones who aren’t going to be here that much longer. Those who have the biggest stake in our future aren’t even bothering — out of laziness, apathy, boneheadedness or whatever — to weigh in.

So it was a fine idea for the University of Ottawa to hold a forum on youth voting Tuesday. The opposition party leaders came out. They all said the right things. They all stressed how youth could make a difference, how issues like climate change would get more attention if more young people voted.

Events like this one will help turnout. The presence in the next election of the youthful Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader will help. Tom Mulcair’s NDP has many young caucus members, particularly in Quebec. That will help as well.

Who knows? We might even get the voting rate among the young and restless up to 50 per cent — which would still be pathetic. The overall voting rate in Canada is only about 60 per cent. It might go a little higher — which also would be pathetic.

There’s an easy solution to this, one which the party leaders at the forum didn’t touch on, unfortunately. It’s to go the route of Australia and over 20 other countries around the world and make voting compulsory.

It’s been talked about here a bit in the past. But since the pros outweigh the cons it should be the focus of much more debate — particularly among progressive party leaders, since their parties would stand to benefit significantly from such a change.

The big counter-argument is that forcing people to vote is an oppressive, statist measure. It’s a strong argument, one cited by Stephen Harper back in the day when he was head of the National Citizens’ Coalition.

Compulsory voting would help protect election results from being overly influenced by the parties with the best get-out-the-vote machines and the most money. It would reduce the impact of dirty tricks designed to suppress or increase the vote.

But there is a way to mitigate that problem. Put a box on the ballot that says ‘none of the above’. Do that, and you’re not forcing anyone to cast a ballot for a person or party they don’t want. Marking that box would signal dissatisfaction with the system in a far stronger way than staying away from the polls.

The advantages to compulsory voting are numerous. It would induce great numbers of complacent or disinterested people to become engaged in the political process. If they knew they would have to vote, more people would start paying attention to what’s going on in government.

Parties tend to win federal elections in Canada with the support of only 35 to 40 per cent of those who voted. That means that out of all eligible Canadian voters, the winners have the support of little more than 20 per cent of the population. With almost all the population voting, governments would have more legitimacy.

Compulsory voting would help protect election results from being overly influenced by the parties with the best get-out-the-vote machines and the most money. It would reduce the impact of dirty tricks designed to suppress or increase the vote.

Compulsory voting would make the voices of the socially disadvantaged far louder than they are under our current system. It would mean all segments of the population would be heard to the degree their numbers dictate they should.

Countries with compulsory voting include Argentina and Brazil, as well as Australia. There are many different approaches. Australia imposes fines of up to $170. In the election of 2013, many opted to pay the fine instead of going to the polls. But the turnout was still 92 per cent.

A push for compulsory voting will never happen under the Conservatives. They have the best get-out-the-vote machine. They don’t want the youth or the socially disadvantaged to vote in great numbers because those people tend to vote for other parties.

Progressive parties would stand to gain from mandatory voting — but they’ve shied away from trying to build support for it because compelling people to vote has an ugly ring to some people.

But governments force citizens to do a lot of things, to obey a lot of laws. You can’t smoke in most public places these days because we decided a long time ago that smoking is a public health issue.

So is voting. It’s about protecting the health of our democracy.

Lawrence Martin is the author of 10 books, including six national bestsellers. His most recent, Harperland, was nominated for the Shaughnessy Cohen award. His other works include two volumes on Jean Chrétien, two on Canada-U.S. relations and three books on hockey.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.