The May 2 federal election brought many unforeseen changes — a majority Conservative government, a New Democratic Party official opposition, and the first elected Green party member. Yet, what was less clear was its effect was on Canadian youth.
According to CBC estimates, voter turnout in the recent election was 61.4 per cent. That’s up 58.8 per cent from 2008, which saw one of the lowest youth voter turnouts in Canadian history.
A Lack of Incentive
Paul Adams, an associate professor of journalism at Carleton, said although the youth vote was up slightly from the 2008 election, it’s still far too low.
“I believe one of the fundamental reasons youth don’t vote, is that the major parties simply don’t focus their platforms to young people,” Adams said.
“The fact is, because of the population size of the baby boom, public policy has been catered towards them throughout their lives. The parties reflect their ideologies, not those of the youth.”
The official voter turnout statistics will not be released until late 2011 or early 2012, according to Elections Canada.
If a young person doesn’t vote in the first two elections they’re eligible to, they will likely never vote in their lifetime, said Ilona Dougherty, executive director of Apathy is Boring.
Apathy is Boring is a non-partisan organization that was created to combat voting apathy among Canadian youth.
“Voting is an integral part of democracy,” said Dougherty. “In 20 to 30 years, we’re going to have a democracy in which only 40 per cent of the population votes. Voter apathy is really dangerous.”
“We want elected officials and youth to talk,” she said. “The onus should not just be on young people but on officials to engage and talk to the youth.”
According to Dougherty, some 78,000 youth pledged to vote with Apathy is Boring. With an absence of official voting statistics, it’s unclear what the actual turnout was.
Vote Mobs
Vote mobs, non-partisan demonstrations of youth urging other youth to vote, were another feature of this election.
Leona Nikolic, a second-year history and theory of architecture student, attended the April 18 Carleton vote mob.
“I decided to attend the vote mobs because they seemed like some fun. It was like the elections in the United States, where they have concerts and speakers addressing crowds of people,” Nikolic said. “It was about making voting fun.”
But Dougherty said the vote mobs did little to sway apathetic voters.
“If a young person was to attend a vote mob, more than likely they are already politically involved,” she said. “The vote mobs, while great, were simply groups of politically motivated young people who were already going to vote.”
Starting Young
Another organization geared toward youth engagement is the Toronto-based group Student Vote, which holds parallel federal elections for high school students. According to their website, more than 500,000 students in schools across Canada participated in the recent parallel election. This was an increase from the 2008 election.
Although there are organizations working towards engaging youth, it’s clear that more is needed to increase youth participation. According to Adams, direct peer engagement is the best way to get youth involved.
“It’s about the difference between being talked at versus being talked to,” he said. “Youth respond far better when they hear about politics from their peers.”