Give younger Canadians a vote: time to lower voting age
After the recent tumultuous election campaign in Newfoundland and Labrador, we are beginning to evaluate how we should hold elections in the future.
An all-party committee is looking into the Elections Act and devising methods to bring the legislation into the modern age — something that should occur regularly in all parts of the country as new technologies and methods of voting become available. It’s a key way to keep the voting electorate engaged.
In Newfoundland, it appears much of the focus is around upgrading and defining the powers of the Chief Electoral Office and developing clear guidelines about proper election procedures. While this is necessary, we would be much better served if those involved took a deeper dive into the entire process and made changes that better reflect the voting wishes of the entire population.
Two suggestions that would benefit this process are moving to proportional representation and lowering the voting age to 16.
Proportional representation has received more attention, but the concept of lowering the voting age to 16 is one whose time has come if we are to improve our engagement with voters.
There has been a longstanding trend in recent elections of decreased voter participation, and there is a definite variation based on age. The older you are, the more likely you are to vote; the younger you are, the less likely.
If this trend continues and we can’t find a way to engage younger voters, our democracy will be at risk. Once voter participation drops below 50 per cent, we have to question the validity of the process and whether the election truly reflects the wishes of the population.
Both Scotland and Wales have held elections recently in which voters as young as 16 could participate, and young voters have embraced this opportunity. It only makes sense that we educate our children on the importance of engaging in our democracy and give them opportunities to practice this while they are still in school. We know that handson learning is vital for young people and that establishing habits when young leads to a greater chance they will continue into adulthood.
Lowering the voting age to 16 just makes sense. In Canada, if given the chance to vote at 16, youth would likely have an opportunity to vote in either a federal, provincial or municipal election during their high school years.
When we consider the future of our country, we need to be aware that our youth will become our leaders someday. We have given lip service to listening to the views of young people but haven’t taken any meaningful actions to give their views any concrete weight in decision-making. The more active they are in the political process, the better prepared they will be when their turn comes to lead this country into the future.
We also know young people are much more comfortable using new forms of technology and, as we undergo our evaluation of our election process, we need to embrace using technology to increase voter participation.
As we learned in the recent provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador, we are likely to need technology more as we move into the future, pandemic notwithstanding. We can’t afford to keep going the way we are now. We have examples of similar countries where such methods are already in place, so we don’t need to re-invent the wheel. We just need to acknowledge the trend we are in and be willing to change before it is too late. Involving and engaging our youth is a vital place to start.