Edmonton councillors support push to lower voting age to 16

A five-member committee, made up of Edmonton city councillors and the northern city’s mayor, unanimously supported a push to lower the municipal voting age to 16 on Tuesday.

The Edmonton Youth Council has been campaigning for the change, which still needs Edmonton council approval and then would need provincial approval.

While the idea of allowing 16and 17-year-olds to vote for city council members and school board trustees is gaining steam in Edmonton, some city councillors in Calgary are against lowering the voting age.

“What’s the purpose? Is it to increase voter turnout? There are other ways of increasing voter turnout,” said Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot on Tuesday.

Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating, a former teacher and principal, said he’s comfortable with leaving the voting age at 18.

“We have to make sure we have a full life experience before we actually start making decisions on who and how we’re going to govern the city,” he said.

“Some (16-year-olds) would certainly be in the mindset to be able to do it, but I just don’t think at this point they have the life experience to sit down and make that rather serious decision.”

Last fall, an attempt to urge the province to allow teenagers to cast ballots in municipal elections was shot down by hundreds of civic representatives at the annual Alberta Urban Municipalities Association meeting, with 77 per cent of attendees voting against the resolution.

City of Lethbridge councillor Jeff Coffman originally brought forward the resolution and said with fewer and fewer youth participating in elections, and 16- and 17-year-olds already learning about democracy in social studies classes, it made sense to engage teenagers and “allow them to become lifelong voters.”

In Calgary, a 2015 city report on voter turnout in municipal elections detailed who votes and why and stated a person’s education level, age and income were the three most important determinants of who casts ballots in elections.

The more educated a person is, and the older a person is, the likelier they will vote, according to the research.