Event Date: November 10, 2014 - 4:30 pm

ANDREW COYNE, National Post.
DON LENIHAN, Public Policy Forum.

Presented by CIPS. In English. Registration is required.  Seating is limited.
UOttawa Faculty, students and staff: FREE (but registration required; see below).
Regular ticket: $15 (see below).

Audio:

[audio:http://web20.uottawa.ca/academic/socialsciences/cepi-cips/debate_2014-11-10.mp3]

Video of the event:

 

Read the opening statements by Andrew Coyne and Don Lenihan.

Andrew Coyne, national columnist for The National Post and “At Issue” panelist on CBC’s The National, asks: “Why should voting, the fundamental act of democracy, be an option, and not, like jury duty or paying your taxes, a basic obligation of citizenship?”

Don Lenihan, an internationally recognized expert on democracy and public engagement and a senior associate at the Public Policy Forum, disagrees: “[I]f people are losing confidence in the system, compulsory voting will only mask the malaise by creating the appearance that everything is fine—and that fixes nothing.”

The referee for this match will be Kate Heartfield, editorial pages editor at the Ottawa Citizen.

Your attendance is not compulsory, but it is strongly recommended!