Citizenship Challenge - Voting Rights in Canada Learning Tool
This guide is designed to give educators tools to help students think critically about the history of voting rights in Canada. The guide complements the Voting Rights in Canada: A Select Timeline video by expanding on featured timeline points and providing activities to help students explore the history of voting rights in more depth. While the education guide activities follow a chronological order, the lessons may be used in order or on their own.
Today, voting is seen as a key element of Canadian democracy, but there has been a long history of democratic participation here since well before Canada became a country. From Indigenous systems of governance to modern elections, people have participated in the decision-making process for centuries. The nature of voting has changed over time – what is voted on, how and where voting takes place, and even who has the right to vote.
The question of who has the right to vote in Canada has not always been straightforward. Race, ethnicity, religion, property ownership, age, and gender were among the many factors that ruling elites used to exclude people from voting throughout history. At one point or another, the majority of people in Canada have had to press their claim for their right to vote, sometimes more than once.
As the country grew, changing social values impacted who had the right to vote. The franchise was a tool used strategically by governments to create electoral bases they could benefit from. Voting rights did not evolve evenly across the country. Federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal franchise regulations varied widely.
Generations of people living in what is now known as Canada were excluded from participating in democracy, and the battle for universal suffrage in Canada has been hard fought. We must never take the right to vote for granted.