Tuesday, December 06, 2005

The Voting Youth

Here is an issue that seems to crop up every election, and then largely be left dormant between elections. Youth and voting. To some, a big deal, to others, not so much. Reports of the last election's turnout in the youth demographic were quite low, but now a new story crops up saying that 88% of people aged 18-24 intend to vote? And 70% of them affiliate with a party? (Check out the story)

I'm sorry, but I find that hard to believe, for a few reasons. As a member of said demographic, while I intend to vote, whenever I attempt to have a conversation regarding political issues with my friends and peers, I frequently find they don't have any idea what the issues are. And as such, many of them have said that they don't want to vote as they don't know enough about what is going on. Is that wholly their fault? I don't think so (and its also partly the reason I started writing this blog).

I think much of the problem stems from the fact that young people don't feel that they have a say, or true representation in Parliament. Many people look at the government and see a bunch of older men and women, more representative of their parents and grandparents generation than their own. Is that 100% accurate? Not necessarily, but even for some of the younger MPs, younger voters don't necessarily relate to them either, due to ideology, attitude, or how they act in the House of Commons.

So what needs to be done? Sure, people my age could work to take a larger interest in public affairs and politics. And the parties could meet us halfway, and start focusing on some of the issues that appeal more to younger voters, and delivering their messages in channels that younger voters connect with.

These are some of my thoughts on the issue, if anyone wants to suggest anything, please comment, this is definitely a subject I'd like to hear some discussion on.

1 comment:

Antemeridian said...

Okay, so I'm commenting my own post, just wanted to add a link, and didn't want to extend the post. For a related story, check out this story at CTV.ca