I have to admit I haven't thought of these things. All I can say is that for that particular age group, especially when they're away from their own home communities, even at a school or university in Canada let alone outside the country, they're going through a situation in life involving many changes. We know that at that point in life the likelihood of their doing what's necessary to vote is reduced. Therefore, anything that makes it particularly hard, in many individual cases, I'm sure would just be the straw that breaks the camel's back. They'll say, why bother?
It would seem to me we should be doing the opposite. We should be identifying the groups abroad and asking what their particular needs are and how we can better meet those.
You're right about a student in another country who has all kinds of personal concerns, residential concerns, and academic concerns. Let's say he's doing graduate work, or he may be doing undergraduate work in Montreal or Toronto or Ottawa. Is he going to try to track down someone who's there for him to testify to his having lived there and so on? As you say, he can't use a lease. I doubt if he would even have a copy of that lease with him to begin with. What would be the motivation for any young person in that situation to make the effort?
When we are doing this, we have to put ourselves into the minds of the people affected, and I don't see how this law does that kind of thing.