How does it hurt low income families or first nations when they can get photo id for free? Once again: It is completely reasonable to expect people to be able to prove they are who they say they are when carrying out an important civic duty. No one complains about having to provide ID to buy alcohol, but ask people to do it to vote, and shit hits the fan? Ridiculous. Alcohol isn't really a necessity nor a right. I think I'm speaking mostly from anecdotal evidence on the low income part. When my mother had her purse stolen a few years back, it took over a year for her to get her ID back. First of all, she had to pay to get her birth certificate back in order to get her health card back. Then, she had to use all that to get her Photo Card back (thankfully this was instituted because she doesn't have a driver's licence). The same thing happened to my father (except it took him 2 years because he didn't have the money to pay for a birth certificate, so was stuck without a health card for that long). In terms of First Nations, there is actually a greater level of difficulty in obtaining photo ID such as a health card. In the past, voter ID cards (mailed out) and Indian Status card were acceptable forms of ID. Not to mention the lack of information being given about it. Let's say you live in a remote part of Canada, you would assume to vote as per normal before being turned away for not having sufficient identification (again, First Nations). There's also more issues surrounding this election such as Elections Canada not being allowed to encourage people to vote on election day, etc. (No ads for when to vote like there used to be.)