91-year-old veteran says he was denied right to vote in Ontario's election, despite having proper ID
Naama Weingarten | CBC News | Posted: March 8, 2025 10:00 AM | Last Updated: 14 hours ago
Elections Ontario says it will review feedback, but family fears others also turned away
At 91-years-old, veteran Charles Parent says he's voted in every single Ontario election, even casting a ballot from overseas while serving in Europe.
But this winter snap election marked a first for him.
Parent says he was denied his right to vote despite bringing proper ID to his polling station in the riding of Bay of Quinte— and his family fears many others were turned away for the same reason.
"I've never missed a vote. This is the first one I missed and I was upset," Parent told CBC Toronto.
According to Elections Ontario, people can vote as long as they have a voter information card and a one piece of ID showing their name, which Parent did.
But Parent's daughter, Susan Hyndman, told CBC Toronto a polling worker said his voter information and health cards weren't enough, suggesting he go home and get another form of ID with his address on it.
"He also said that we weren't the first. He said, 'We turned many away for this particular reason,'" Hyndman said.
Election Ontario's website says Parent would have needed an ID with an address only if he didn't have his voter information card, which wasn't the case.
Assuming the polling worker must have been correct, the rest of his family voted while Parent waited and eventually left.
If it had been a warm summer day they would have likely returned, Hyndman said, but bad weather already made it a challenge for them to leave the house with Parent, who uses a walker.
"By the time we got home, we weren't going back out again," she said.
But for Parent, there was also a layer of frustration.
"I didn't feel like coming back, put it that way," he said. "People…should be trained properly"
Nikole Hyndman, Parent's granddaughter, immediately tried to fix the situation when she heard about what had happened, but to no avail.
She said two Elections Ontario hotlines seemed to be inactive, while a third sent her to voicemail.
She has since filed a formal complaint with Elections Ontario.
In an email sent to Nikole seen by CBC Toronto, Elections Ontario said their "feedback will be reviewed" and they "understand that participating in the electoral process should be straightforward, accessible, and positive for all voters."
When CBC Toronto asked Elections Ontario about Parent's experience at the polls and how many similar complaints their office received, they said they were unable to comment on individual cases or disclose information related to specific voters.
Voter turnout just 1.4% away from all-time low
The PCs won Parent's Bay of Quinte riding with Tyler Allsopp capturing 20,999 votes (44.4 per cent of the vote) to defeat Liberal David O'Neil, who was second with 14,883 votes. The NDP's Amanda Robertson finished third, with 8,745 votes.
You can find all of the election results on our interactive page here.
Nikole said it's upsetting that such a vulnerable member of the population was turned away from the polls.
That's especially the case, she says, "considering the problems we've had in this province and in this country with voter turnout, to then see somebody…making the effort to go to the polls and to be turned away due to a lack of clear, accessible information."
Last month's provincial election had a voter turnout of 45.4 per cent, a slight rise from 2022's 44 per cent — the lowest voter turnout in Ontario's history.
Parent managed to vote in past elections even while serving in England and Spain during his three decades in the Canadian Armed Forces. While in the air force, he says he got to fly major figures including Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Joe Clark, while getting the chance to meet the late Queen Elizabeth.
"Papa taught us that democracy is important," Nikole said. "I feel like that's a part of the value system that I was raised on."
More than a week after the election, Parent and his family still remain puzzled about why he was turned away from voting in his own home riding.
"I voted all over, all over the world [in] different elections," Parent said. "I always managed to vote because the system was well organized."