Youth vote is a force that will be felt

The stakes for young people in this election are clear: our future is being decided. On so many fronts, the weight of the election’s outcomes will be borne by us.

Every election is about the future. Politicians from all parties line up to make promises about who they will be and how they will lead. But often, they’re talking to the people most likely to show up to the voting booth.

There is credible research that voter turnout increases with age; the largest block of voters tend to be 65 and over and the smallest block tend to be young people between 18 and 25. But the past is not all that the future holds.

The last Ontario election in 2014 saw a small increase in overall voter turnout. Notably, in the 2015 federal election voter turnout was at its highest since 1993: 57.1 per cent of young people aged 18 to 24 and 57.4 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 showed up to vote, thus increasing turnout in their age groups by 18.3 points and 12.3 points respectively.

In this provincial election, young people are the largest voting cohort, outnumbering baby boomers. Our generation is a diverse and politically active one but we face massive challenges: student debt, precarious work, rising health and child-care costs and a dismissive cultural attitude.

Yet for all the ups and downs (and downs and downs), young people’s concerns have not been primary. Messaging from the three major parties and their advocates has hearkened us were children, or indeed, not alive.

In the middle of all that, it has been hard to hear exactly what they’ve planned for our future. Helpfully, Flare magazine compiled a rundown of the Liberals’, NDP’s and Progressive Conservatives’ promises as they pertain to young people’s concerns.

The Ontario Liberals — such as they now are — promise to expand on most of their existing policies: full-day daycare in addition to the existing full-day kindergarten, more grants for lowerincome students, and a plan to spend $2.1 billion on mental health.

The NDP meanwhile is promising the world: expanding health care to include pharmacare and dental care, a massive student debt grant and interest forgiveness program and the creation of a Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction.

Beyond a dollar for a beer, it’s hard to see what’s valuable to young people in the PC platform: a freeze on the minimum wage, no promises on tuition or student debt, an end to the Green Energy Act, and a tax credit for child-care expenses.

These promises and others still miss a mark.

I’ve had conversations with young people about social housing, the ability to purchase a home, the challenges of being a newcomer and the various tortures of public transit, to name a few.

Young Black people have told me about how they navigate their often-left-leaning politics with the social conservatism and sometimes big-C conservatism of their parents. I’ve met young people, partisan and non-partisan alike, who have thoughtful, probing questions about unions and how seniority issues have, they feel, kept them out of jobs.

Housing, immigration, mental health, transit, culture, labour — these are but a few of the issues where young people’s futures are a pressing daily concern.

Part of the challenge is us. It’s one thing to complain about rent, and another thing entirely to hold politicians to account.

As Tara Mahoney and Kate Reeve of the Undecided podcast write, “Much like riding a bike or achieving female orgasm, practice makes perfect. To ease the pain of political conversations, we need to have more of them.”

It’s been said that young people don’t vote because we doubt our votes will make a difference. It is also said we are generally apathetic, indifferent to policy and politics. But that is untrue. Politics is a part of our conversations and it is growing louder.

In this election, we’re unlikely to be silent.

And whoever becomes premier better make sure that we’re heard.