With all local polls now reporting the unofficial results of Thursday’s election, the local voter turnout of 44.7 per cent is a modern-history low for a general provincial election.
This, after the Elections Ontario recorded a 60.3-per-cent jump in advance voting locally.
The local voter turnout estimate factors in a vote count of 60,149 between the Nickel Belt and Sudbury electoral districts, whose total number of registered voters is 134,579.
Turnout in Nickel Belt was slightly greater than it was in Sudbury this year, at 45.5 per cent to Sudbury’s 43.9 per cent.
Although Thursday’s election marked a modern-history low in terms of general provincial elections, the lowest-ever turnout was recorded in 1911, when only 29.2 per cent of voters cast a ballot in Sudbury. A Sudbury byelection in 2015 recorded a voter turnout of 39.7 per cent.
This year’s election signals a significant spike in voter apathy, with the previous general provincial election in 2018 recording a 54.2 per cent turnout in Sudbury and 55.4 per cent turnout in Nickel Belt.
Provincially, voter turnout in Thursday’s election was a record-low 43 per cent, which is a significant drop from the 57 per cent recorded in 2018. This is the second-largest voter drop in Ontario’s history after 86 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in 1919 and 58 per cent did so in 1923.
The previous turnout low provincially was in 2011, when 48 per cent of voters turned out in a general election that saw Dalton McGuinty's Liberal party win a minority government. That year, turnout in Nickel Belt was 49.6 per cent and turnout in Sudbury was 49.9 per cent.
This year’s voter apathy was the result of people uncomfortable heading out to vote due to lingering COVID-related health concerns and others giving up on the democratic process, Nickel Belt’s recently re-elected NDP MPP France Gélinas told Sudbury.com.
“They don’t believe in it anymore, they believe that everything is fixed, that their voices don’t matter, that everybody hates them as much as they hate the world,” she said, adding that she intends to help instill a sense of hope among those who feel disenfranchised.
“If something is wrong, identify it, work toward it, think about it, get enough people to talk about something,” she said. “We do live in a democracy, we will be heard; things will change.
“If enough of us ask for something, we will get it. It’s just a question of concentrating our efforts to push a single message forward, and then the government has no choice but to respond.”
Her Progressive Conservative opponent in Nickel Belt, Randy Hazlett, shared similar sentiment, but remained nonetheless surprised by the low voter turnout.
He knocked on approximately 10,000 doors in the months leading up to Thursday’s vote, and counted 2,500 identified supporters who didn’t end up going to the polls.
“It’s a huge number,” he said. “No amount of convincing was going to get them to the polls.”
People have become disillusioned and fed up by politics during the past two years, he added, noting that “it’s going to take time for people to heal.”
Although uncertain as to what the solution might be, Hazlett said he is already looking at again seeking the Nickel Belt seat when the next provincial election rolls around in four years’ time.
“It’s just going to take time for people to heal. Hopefully, some politicians do some good things in the province in the next four years.”
With files from The Canadian Press
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
