The youth vote rate in Canada, and other comparable developed nations, is worryingly low.
Only 37 per cent of people aged 18-24 voted in the 2008 Canadian federal election according to Elections Canada. Exit polls in the 2014 American midterm elections show the youth turnout was only 21.5 per cent.
This kind of pluralistic ignorance is a huge problem in fostering a rich democracy. At this point, politicians are unable to say they reflect a majority of youth voices. This isn’t a recent conundrum—youth vote rates have historically been relatively low. Research published by the Washington Post demonstrates turnout in midterm elections in the United States as consistently hovering around 20 per cent among voters aged 18-29.
This is completely reasonable. Politicians aren’t going out of their way to share with youth the importance of local politics, the importance of voting, and their personal campaign platforms.
Sure, we may see signs placed all around town, but how likely are we to remember the names and later do research on each candidates’ platform? Rarely do I see any of these local candidates on the news, at community events, on TV, or Facebook trying to boost awareness about local politics.
And while this is especially a problem for municipal elections, the bigger names in Canadian politics—Trudeau, Harper, Mulcair—aren’t necessarily doing much to boost youth interest in politics either.
It’s understandable that a majority of youth simply aren’t interested in federal politics. They may think it doesn’t affect them, or that their vote doesn’t matter.
While municipal issues like hydro, traffic, transit, and trash are important, federal issues like taxation, unemployment insurance, banking, military affairs, etc. are important as well.
Young people have been trained to think that politicians don’t necessarily care about them and their priorities.
This is where that needs to change.
It should be the role of politicians to create a larger forum for discussion. Politicians should explain how their platforms and campaigns have the power to affect youth.
In municipal politics, there is a lot of political jargon that youth don’t even try to understand. The definitions of words like “municipalities,” “councillors,” “mayors,” “wards,” and “trustees” can be confusing to people that have no background or no basic knowledge of politics. Federal politics are no different; what average young adult knows the difference between “head of state” and “head of government,” or what a “fiscal conservative” or “red Tory” is?
It should be the politicians’ jobs, at least if they want to secure more votes, to explain their leadership roles in simpler ways so the youth are engaged as well.
Youth have different priorities than previous generations. If these differences were reflected in federal politics, Canada wouldn’t look the same.
But these concerns are not being addressed in the political sphere. If we continue on this path of apathy, the priorities of our government won’t progress with us.
If more politicians cared about educating youth about politics, voting rates would increase, and Canadian politicians could truthfully claim that they do in fact represent a large majority of Canada’s population.
