Lower the voting age, why not?

Simon Minkow seems like a really neat kid. The 14-year-old from Cowichan Valley is lobbying Victoria to lower the provincial voting age from 18 to 16.

“Simon’s keen engagement in our democratic process is a prime example of why this change is the right thing to do,” said Sonia Furstenau, one of three Green party MLAs in Victoria. A story on Minkow by the

posted to our website, is drawing all kinds of comments. Most think it’s a crazy idea.

It’s no surprise Greens are endorsing the concept. In “Student Vote” exercises, the Greens often win.

NDPer Richard Cannings said during the 2013 provincial election campaign that lowering the voting age was worth considering. (Cannings, now an MP, ran unsuccessfully against Dan Ashton in Penticton.)

By contrast, during the 2015 federal election, Marshall Neufeld, the Conservative candidate in South OkanaganWest Kootenay, didn’t attend the all-candidates meeting at Penticton Secondary School. That was a poor message sent from a major political party.

Voting age has been lowered to 16 in Scotland, Austria, Brazil and Argentina.

One will argue that kids don’t pay taxes. Well, neither do some of Canada’s wealthiest citizens.

It won’t be armageddon if teenagers are allowed to vote because chances are, only those who are keenly interested, will bother to show up to the polls. Even if 16 and 17-year-olds are allowed to cast a ballot, seniors will still remain by far the largest voting demographic.

It’s ironic that the major political parties allow kids as young as 14 to participate in the process as party members, thus meaning they may vote in nomination meetings.

In the Okanagan, where a BC Liberal victory is a foregone conclusion, in theory 14-yearolds are voting for the next MLA.

So, why not let them vote on election day?

Teenagers can’t do any worse of job of electing candidates than the adults.