A generation overlooked?
This is the first year many of my friends and I can vote in the federal election. Four years ago, I remember we all talked about wanting to vote, wishing we could vote, and how excited we were to vote in the next election.
Fast forward to the present day, we barely discuss politics. When the subject surfaces, it feels awkward and taboo. I realize our knowledge barely reaches past the scattered, brief paragraphs we read online. The leader of our country is not at the forefront of our thoughts. To me, my friends and I feel disengaged as voters.
When this realization came to me, I began reaching out to my friends to see what they thought. Over and over, I heard we are not the target voters candidates are looking for because we are young.
Continuing my search online, I found that a parties’ activity online is crucial for reaching the young population. However, there is not enough activity from the candidates. That is one key reason, I believe, my friends and I feel disengaged. We are not being reached via the most popular form of communication for our generation.
But we care about the issues. From the discussions I’ve had with other young people and from tweets and other posts I’ve seen online, our primary concern is climate change. One student even said, “Given the state of the world, I think this election will make or break our future”. This quote, frankly, demonstrates the passion young people have for our global crisis.
Our perspective is covered by an existential lens causing us to shift our focus towards saving the planet more and more every day. We are looking for parties who discuss this crisis.
The Acadia campus in Wolfville, where I attend university, holds strikes and discussions, but we are not hearing enough from our future leaders about our generation’s main priority. I believe climate change activism will influence my vote — and most of my friend’s votes — the most.
This is the first year my friends and I can vote. Unfortunately, it seems my friends and I are more excited about the act of voting more than who we are voting for because we do not feel relevant as a generation. But regardless of feeling overlooked, my friends and I will still practice our right, as first-time voters and many of us as females, to vote.