Will it be a high-stakes election for every Canadian?

Every election, there are millions of Canadians who are eligible to vote — but choose not to.

In the 2021 federal election, about 38 per cent of Canadians fit into this category. That's around 10.2 million people who were eligible to vote but didn't, according to numbers by Elections Canada. 

This federal election may be high stakes for many Canadians, with ongoing and serious threats to Canada's sovereignty and economy from U.S. President Donald Trump, but there will likely still be lots of eligible voters who choose not to take part in electing the next government.  

Chris Grellier is one of them. 

He's a 20-year-old from North Vancouver, who currently lives in Whistler. He says he's not against the principle of voting, and worries about future jobs and being able to afford to rent alone.

But he doesn't see the point of casting a ballot when he feels none of the candidates in his riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country speak directly to him. 

"No one really calls my name," he said. 

"I feel like if I'm voting I really want to get behind it and if there's no one I really want to get behind it's just throwing my vote in there, like it doesn't feel very meaningful to me."

'Motivational barriers'

For years, federal voter turnout has hovered around 60 to 70 per cent, with the highest-ever participation rate being 79.4 per cent in 1958. The lowest ever was in 2008, when just 59 per cent of Canadians cast a vote. In comparison, the United Kingdom's 2024 general election had about a 60 per cent turnout; in the U.S. last year, 63.5 per cent of those eligible voted.

Advance polling numbers for this Canadian election broke records over the Easter long weekend, with more than 7.3 million Canadians voting early, up from the 5.8 million who voted early in 2021. 

But it's still too soon to definitively say whether this election's big issues will be enough to push overall turnout higher than previous years. Prior elections, like 2021 and 2019, recorded an increase in advance voting, but a decline in overall voter turnout.

Reaching out to people who don't vote is challenging, says Sam Reusch, who helps lead non-partisan voter engagement group Apathy is Boring. 

Their volunteers across Canada want to convince more young people to vote because youth tend to vote at much lower rates than older adults, says Reusch.

How does it affect me? 

It's also a habit-forming exercise. If a person votes in the first election after they turn 18, they are more likely to be a lifelong voter, according to research by Elections Canada.

But Reusch admits there can be some "motivational barriers" to young people seeing the value of voting in the first place. Maybe one party has held their riding their whole lives, so they don't think their vote can make a difference, or they don't resonate with any party platform or leader.

"Elections can feel really inaccessible," she said. 

"You're talking about things, like especially this election, like trade policy and macroeconomics and these really big topics. But it can be really helpful to drill down to, 'How does that affect you and I on a day-to-day basis?'"

Elections Canada has also tried to dig into the reasons behind people not voting, with help from Statistics Canada. A labour force survey completed after the last federal election in 2021, found people didn't vote for two main reasons: being too busy to vote or simply not being interested in politics.

'Not interested'

Encouraging people to think about what matters to them is a good place to start convincing them that voting can make a difference, says John Beebe, founder of the Democratic Engagement Exchange, a voter engagement group, at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

People tend to care most about issues like housing affordability, job growth, crime and social inequality. Voters just need to spend a little bit of time thinking about which party best aligns with them, says Beebe.

But there are more practical ways to get more people to vote, too, that Beebe tries to incorporate in his work with community groups.

That includes showing would-be voters what the inside of a booth actually looks like, and letting them practise filling out a ballot before election day or during advanced voting. This helps demystify the ins and outs of actually casting a ballot.

"It's easier than people think. That's one of the key barriers," said Beebe. 

It's important to remind eligible Canadians that they can still vote at their assigned polling station on April 28, even if they're not registered, as long as they can prove identity and address, he said.  

Disconnected and disenfranchised

But there remain bigger challenges to lower voter turnout, like growing social isolation and disconnection, especially among young people, says Beebe.

"We're up against headwinds right now," he says, of the loneliness epidemic that's become pervasive in Canada, as fewer people find themselves members of groups like churches, unions or even running clubs that can provide a crucial sense of belonging and foster the common good. 

"When we feel closer to our community, we're much more likely to understand that voting is a way to strengthen community."

Between Canada's frequent voters and non-voters are people like 22-year-old Jeremy Land from Vancouver.

He wants to participate, but is still deciding for whom to vote.

Land plans to commit more time to fully understanding Canada's political parties and their promises before election day. He says he's "definitely going to vote this time," which would also make it the first time he's participated in a federal election. 

Future home ownership and the cost of living are important to him, but it's really the tariffs and tensions between the U.S. and Canada that are driving him toward actually voting.

Of the elections he's seen go by, he says this one "seems like a very important one."