New Brunswick’s Commission on Electoral Reform is recommending lowering the voting age to 16 and moving to a system of preferential ballots in the province.
The commission released its final report today in Fredericton following four months of gathering input. Other recommendations include giving permanent residents who are not yet Canadian citizens the right to vote.
However, the commission says the government should not proceed with online voting, due to concerns related to security, confidentiality and privacy. The provincial government made it a campaign promise in 2014 to at least look at such issues.
Premier Brian Gallant says his government needs time to consider the recommendations, but any change in the way people vote would have to be decided through a referendum or election.
During the last federal campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to change the way Canadians cast their ballots in time for the 2019 election. But the federal Liberal government has abandoned that idea, arguing consultations on the issue did not produce a consensus on whether to change the status quo as promised, or what should replace the current first−past−the−post voting system.
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