Are elections really that onerous?

Just a few minutes ago I was listening to this morning's episode of CBC's The House, a radio show/podcast about Canadian politics, when I heard Tom Lukiwski, Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, suggest that Canadians don't want an election.

For years I have wondered about this oft-repeated claim. Do Canadians really find elections elections distasteful? Is listening to coverage of an election and seeing election signs so troubling that Canadians would rather not experience an election at all? Maybe most troubling is that those making this claim almost never provide evidence to support their position, it is simply stated as though it is an obvious truth.

I find this claim troubling on two fronts. Firstly, elections in Canada aren't a big imposition for the average person. Aside from slightly different news coverage and a few more signs, I am not sure how most Canadians actually impacted by the process of holding an election (election outcomes are a slightly different story). Secondly, given that very few Canadians actually take the time to vote (about 59% in the last election) it seems fair to say that for many people elections don't even impose a significant time burden on much of the population (the same could even be said for most of those people who do take the time to vote). So what is it the cause of the supposed animus towards elections?

That being said, I also wonder if there is a difference of opinion about the desirability of elections between those who vote and those who don't. Off the top of my head I can't think of too many voters that I know who are too upset by the prospect of more voting. Actually, some of these voters quite like the idea of being able to exercise their right to vote more than once every four years. If this is the case and we have such low rates of participation is it really fair to speak about 'Canadians' as a whole and not disaggregate those who won't participate no matter how infrequently elections are held?

Maybe, and this seems the likely answer to the riddle, when politicians say that Canadians don't want an election what they actually mean is "We don't want an election." Unlike the average voter in a Canadian election, politicians and political parties do face substantial burdens because of elections. Not only do they have to campaign and fundraise, many of these people also face the possibility of losing their jobs. Calling an election a year before necessary is a non-trivial matter, in some cases it could means hundreds of thousands of dollars in future pension earnings, or a loss of control of the legislative agenda.

Anyway, though I don't expect to settle any of this definitively here, I guess I just wish that in the future when politicians make such claims that the journalists present would request that they provide evidence to support their claims, or otherwise justify them. As it stands now far too many politicians are allowed to get away with making this questionable claim on a relatively regular basis.