However, the local turnout stacks up well against the national voter turnout with preliminary numbers showing that only 60.5 per cent of eligible voters across the country bothered to vote this year.

That low national voter turnout continues a disturbing trend to voter apathy and is the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history. About 64 per cent of voters went to the polls in 2000.

There has been a steady decline in voter turnout since the 1988 federal election when 75 per cent of local eligible voters cast ballots.

That trend is "very disappointing and disturbing," says Liberal Peter Adams who won his fourth successive victory. Falling voter participation is a world-wide trend, he says. "In Canada, we had one of the better voter percentages in 2000 and it was still pathetic."

Most noticeable is the declining numbers of young voters who have turned away from voting, with only one in four voters in Canada under 25 years of age casting ballots in 2000.

Peter is pinning his hopes for improvement in voter participation in the Student Vote 2004 initiative introduced by him in a private member's motion. The initiative to hold mock student votes modelled on the actual election is an attempt to stimulate interest in elections within schools.

Monday's results indicate that not even the closest and most controversial campaign in decades could halt the slide in voter participation. A huge turnout at advance polls heightened hopes that this election would see an increase in voter participation but Elections Canada spokesperson Dana Doiron warned that the numbers at advance polls were misleading because Elections Canada has made it much easier to vote at advance polls.

Elections Canada did make an effort to attract voters, particularly younger voters, through advertising and voter registration kits sent to all Canadians who turned 18 since the last election.

Peter won Monday's election with 25,067 votes, Conservative James Jackson finished second with 18,378 votes, the NDP's Linda Slavin was next with 10,877 votes and Green Party candidate Brent Wood garnered 3,175 votes.
The results of the local high school student vote in the Student Vote 2004 campaign wound up with the same order of finish, with 376 mock votes cast for the Liberals, 305 for the Conservatives, 285 for the NDP and 248 for the Greens.

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