I understand that there may have been reasons at the time, but perhaps we did not think about people who are in the hospital, or people for whom it is impossible to leave their homes, or people who must go and work abroad, and so on. It would be helpful to look at the reasons that were used in the past and to see if there could be a special ballot in hospitals on election day to enable people who are there to vote.
We are working very hard to ensure that all Canadians exercise their right to vote. We even make sure that they are able to exercise their right to vote when they are abroad, by giving them an opportunity to do so at an embassy. However, people who are hospitalized five minutes from their polling station cannot vote. I agree with you that for them, this is terrible.