At 91, veteran Charles Parent says he has voted in all Ontario elections, even casting a vote from abroad while serving in Europe.
But this choice of winter snapshots marked a first for him.
The father says that he was denied his right to vote despite carrying an appropriate identification to his voting station in the driving of Bay of Quinte, and his family fears that many others were rejected for the same reason.
“I have never missed a vote. This is the first one that I lost and it was upset,” Parent told CBC Toronto.
According to the elections, Ontario, people can vote whenever they have a voter information card and a single identification that shows their name, what the father did.
But the parents’ daughter, Susan Hyndman, told CBC Toronto that a voting worker said that his voter information and health cards were not enough, which suggests that he went home and obtained another form of identification with his address.
“He also said that we were not the first. He said: ‘We turned many for this particular reason,'” said Hyndman.
The Ontario choice website says that the father would have needed an identification with an address only if he did not have his voter information card, which was not the case.
Assuming that the voting worker must have been correct, the rest of his family voted while the parents waited and finally left.
If it had been a warm summer day, they would probably have returned, Hyndman said, but the bad weather already made it a challenge for them to leave the house with the parents, who uses a walker.
“When we got home, we weren’t going out again,” he said.
But for parents, there was also a layer of frustration.
“I didn’t feel like returning, he said so,” he said. “People … should be trained correctly”
Nikole Hyndman, granddaughter of the parents, immediately tried to fix the situation when he learned what had happened, but was in vain.
She said that two ontarium hotline elections seemed to be inactive, while a third party sent her to the voice mail.
Since then, he has filed a formal complaint with the Ontario elections.
In an email sent to Nikole seen by CBC Toronto, the Ontario elections said their “comments will be reviewed” and that “they understand that participating in the electoral process must be simple, accessible and positive for all voters.”
When CBC Toronto asked the Ontario elections about the experience of the parents in the surveys and how many similar complaints they received their office, they said they could not comment on individual cases or disseminate information related to specific voters.
Participation of voters only 1.4% of the historical minimum
The PCs won the Bay of Quinte’s parents with Tyler Allsopp capturing 20,999 votes (44.4 percent of the votes) to defeat David O’Neil, who was second with 14,883 votes. Amanda Robertson of the NDP finished third, with 8,745 votes.
You can find all electoral results in Our interactive page here.
Nikole said it is annoying that such a vulnerable member of the population was rejected from the surveys.
That is especially the case, he says, “taking into account the problems we have had in this province and in this country with the participation of voters, to see someone … making the effort to go to the surveys and be rejected due to the lack of clear and accessible information.”
The provincial elections last month had an electoral participation of 45.4 percent, a slight increase of 44 percent of 2022, the lowest voting participation in the history of Ontario.
The parents managed to vote in past elections even while serving in England and Spain during their three decades in the Canadian Armed Forces. While he was in the Air Force, he says he had to fly the main figures, including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Carlos and Princess Diana, as well as Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
“Dad taught us that democracy is important,” Nikole said. “I feel that is part of the value system in which I grew up.”
More than a week after elections, parents and their family still remain bewildered about why he was rejected to vote in his own home.
“I voted everywhere, worldwide [in] Different elections, “Father said.” I always managed to vote because the system was well organized. ”
