That is a good question. I have not done any demographic analyses to determine exactly why a particular group decides whether or not to participate in an election. This may be a question you should ask the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada.
I once read an article that I found to be of particular interest. It was about the digital generation, namely, young people under the age of 25. The article concluded that the problem facing government institutions was probably that they were unable to reach these people through the right medium. The people in this demographic group do not read newspapers, they interact online. The open government initiatives focus a great deal on the digital release of government information. This will enable them to capture a segment of the population that is probably different. When you talk to people from Google or OpenText, they will tell you the same thing. We truly are in the digital era. We are no longer talking about generation X, Y or W, but rather the digital generation. I think that we need to use digital means in order to reach out to these people.
I found an interesting report, namely the one submitted to the Clerk of the Privy Council by Messrs. Tellier and Emerson. The report states that the federal public service must start using social media not only for working within government institutions but also for interacting with the citizens. It needs to learn how to work with the citizenry by using its suggestions in developing policies and programs. In Australia, this is an integral part of open government policy. Renewal of the public service and the way it interacts with its citizens is one aspect of this.
Will this result in greater voter turnout? Perhaps.