The modern era in the history of the vote in Canada – beginning with the new approach to the federal franchise embodied in the 1920 elections act and continuing to this day – can be seen as four distinct periods to date. The first, beginning with the 1920 Dominion Elections Act and lasting until 1939, was a period of modest, mostly administrative changes, with few advances in the franchise itself. The overwhelming majority of Canadians age 21 and over had the vote by this time, but there was still clear discrimination against several groups: immigrants of Asian origin and their descendants, certain religious groups, and "status Indians", who had to give up that status and the rights it entailed if they wanted to vote.

The second period, 1940-1960, saw the end of discrimination against groups singled out for disenfranchisement on racial and religious grounds. There were also numerous legislative and administrative changes that made it convenient for more people to vote or extended existing access measures to more classes of electors.

The third period, 1960-1982, saw significant improvements in election administration – many designed to ensure that eligible voters could cast a ballot even if they had a disability – as well as the lowering of the voting age. By the time the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into effect in 1982, most Canadians age 18 and over had the vote,¹ and there had been great improvements in electors’ access to the polls.


The Charter and electoral rights     

The final period, which began with the advent of the Charter in 1982, has been characterized in part by court-driven reforms stemming from Charter-based challenges and in part by changes initiated by the executive and legislative branches, through a royal commission, parliamentary committees, and reports of the Chief Electoral Officer. Three sets of electoral law revisions in the 1990s resulted in greater accessibility of the vote and better administrative practices to ensure that the electoral system has the flexibility to meet the evolving needs of the electorate. With advance polls, the special (mail-in) ballot, polling-day registration, and uniform level access at polling places, virtually all Canadians age 18 and older have both the right to vote and the means to do so. Interestingly, even with these improvements in access to the vote, the vast majority of electors (more than 90 per cent at the last general election) still choose to exercise the franchise at an ordinary polling station on election day.

After the adoption of the Charter in 1982, court decisions imposed various measures to make the electoral process more equitable and accessible.

Constant evolution     

In short, as the franchise was transformed in its first century, the electoral system itself has been transformed since 1920 – by enfranchising groups or classes of citizens that had been deliberately excluded by law and by eliminating most cases of inadvertent administrative disenfranchisement. If the first century and a half of Canada’s electoral history – from 1759 to 1920 – was mainly a story of extending the vote to people previously excluded by reason of income, sex, race or religion, the second half of the story was and continues to be an account of how legislators, courts and election officials have worked to ensure that everyone eligible to vote can exercise this fundamental democratic right of citizenship freely, easily and confidently.

As we have seen throughout the narrative recounted in this book, the rights and institutional protections that are the legacy of history are not static or impervious to change. But the very qualities that make them flexible and capable of adaptation to changing social values also make them fragile and potentially vulnerable. Like democracy itself, they are living organisms that must be tended with care and given the means to flourish. This is the challenge that must be met afresh by each new generation of voters.

Elections Canada is always on the lookout for ways to improve electoral administration, among them exchanging information with the public.

¹Those excluded from voting in federal elections are the Chief Electoral Officer, the Assistant Chief Electoral Officer, the 301 returning officers (except in the case of a tie between the two leading candidates in a constituency), and people convicted of fraud or corruption offences under the Canada Elections Act.