No good reason not to lower voting age

The timing is right to pass Andrew Weaver’s latest private member’s bill.

The BC Green Party leader introduced a bill on Tuesday to lower the voting age in B.C. to 16.

Premier John Horgan has said it’s an idea worth considering.

Some of the older generation might be horrified by the idea of young punks voting, but the truth is many 16 and 17 year olds are ready to vote responsibly.

Look no further than the protests that swept across the United States on Wednesday morning. High school students, most of them 16 and 17, marched for safer schools and sensible gun laws — and spoke eloquently for their cause.

Movement on the gun issue is finally happening south of the border because teenagers are taking action. Adults couldn’t get the job done.

A few countries allow 16-yearolds to vote. Scotland determined a reduced voting age was such a success in its independence referendum that the age was lowered for all Scottish (although not U.K-wide) elections. An estimated 75 per cent of 16- and 17-year-olds voted in the independence referendum.

Studies showed the youngsters largely voted for independence, although the population at large voted to stay in the U.K.

In B.C., 16- and 17-year-olds already study politics and the issues to vote in mock elections. Though the Student Vote program, many are better briefed on issues than a lot of adults.

We can hear the arguments now from older generations against lowering the voting age.

Younger people don’t care about politics and won’t vote. But the Scottish and U.S. examples show teens are engaged.

Some 30-40 per cent of adults already don’t vote in general elections and even more fail to turn out for byelections and civic elections. Criticizing teens for apathy would be wrong and hypocritical.

Some say teen needs life experience, jobs and a mortgage before they should be given the responsibility to vote. These don’t make you a better voter, just a voter with his or her own selection of interests to consider at the polls. We abolished owning property as a requirement to vote long ago.

Sixteen and 17-year-olds have their own valid issues as well.

Get them voting early and maybe they’ll become lifelong voters rather than lifelong non-voters, as many people have turned out to be.

Says Weaver in his news release: “Voting rights have been extended to 16 year-olds in Scotland, Argentina, Austria and Brazil. Evidence from those jurisdictions shows that enfranchising these young voters has led to substantially higher levels of political participation.

“Moreover, research shows that the cognitive skills required to make calm, logically informed decisions are firmly in place by age 16. Young citizens of British Columbia are old enough to drive, pay taxes and sign up for the military. They are also the leaders of tomorrow. They should have a say in the direction we are heading, as they will inherit what we leave behind.”

There’s lots of good reasons to give them the vote. Ageism is the only reason to deny it.

————— Soccer buffs are horrified that the B.C. government is withholding support for efforts to bring the 2026 World Cup to Vancouver as part of a North American bid for the tournament. In a statement, Tourism Minister Lisa Beare said: “So far, the bid committee has rejected our requests to clarify how much British Columbians could be expected to contribute.” The World Cup would be a great event to have, but soccer’s governing body FIFA is not to be trusted with a blank cheque.