HomeMy WebLinkAboutLet 16-year-olds vote? Not a bad idea OPINION - Toronto Star - 03/06/2018 - Toronto Star - 03/06/20183/7/2018
Let 16 -year-olds vote? Not a bad idea I Toronto Star
This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation -ready copies of
Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about
permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com
I
Let 16 -year-olds vote? Not a ba'
idea
Lowering the voting age could felicitously alter the political calculus, creating new
incentives for politicians to e youth and tackle the issue
engags that matter to them and
tYus to our collective future.
Toronto MPP Arthur Potts has suggested one antidote to our democrat
malaise. And it's a good one. Add more youth. (HANDOUT) I
By STAR EDITORIAL BOARD
Tues., March 6, 2o18
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/20l8/O3/O6/let-16-year-olds-vote-not-a-bad-idea.html 1/4
3/7/2018
Let 16 -year-olds vote? Not a bad idea I Toronto Star
It's not for nothing that parliaments and the politicians who inhabit them have fallen
into wide public disdain in recent decades.
The partisan cynicism and selfishness. The chronically immature antics. The inability to
delay gratification and think beyond the next electoral cycle. The state of affairs is so
discouraging that any despairing voters have simply to out, leaving election
turnouts alarmingly low.
To his credit, Toronto MPP Arthur Potts has suggested one antidote. And it's a good one.
Add more youth.
1 111113111111 � 111111111 IF F I IFF!
There is no Solomonic wisdom inherent, after all, in a voting age of 18. Other
jurisdictions around the world, including Austria, Argentina and Brazil, provide for
voting at 16. Sixteen -year-olds voted in 2014 in Scotland's independence referendum,
which saw youth turnout Of 75 per cent.
The current unsatisfactory situation being what it is in Canada and its provinces, old
generations can make no claim to having safeguarded the electoral process or
parliamentary governance with any special intelligence. I
The federal special committee on electoral reform — which reported in December 2016
and was promptly disowned by the Liberal government — heard numerous witnesses
suggest lowering the voting age.
"Many argued that it would increase voter turnout and encourage youth voters to
participate in the democratic process and to remain active voters throughout their life,"
the report said. Inviting youth to vote while they are still in secondary school and still
living with their parents would encourage higher levels of registration and enduring
engagement, they argued.
Many of those who supported lowering teage also suggested improving civics
education in schools.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/20l8/O3/O6/let-16-year-olds-vote-not-a-bad-idea.html 2/4
3/7/2018
Let 16 -year-olds vote? Not a bad idea I Toronto Star
In Canada, recent surveys have been putting the lie tote myth of growing you apathy.
Young voters turned out in historic numbers int e 2015 federal election, according to
research by Samara Canada.
But while turnout of young voters jumped 18 percentage points to 57 per cent, youth
remained the generation least likely to be contacted by political campaigners, Samara
found.
That insult -and -injury combo of being ignored by politicians, even as the economy offers
them the worst prospects in generations, has left many young people feeling alienated
from the democratic process. Experts argue that lowering the voting age will felicitously
alter the political calculus, creating new incentives for politicians to engage youth and
tackle the issues that matter to them and thus to our collective future.
In any event, adding the votes of 16- and 17-year-olds to the electoral mix could hardly
make things worse.
If modern politics has made anything clear, with its gridlock and unbridgeable partisan
divides, it is that good ideas and good examples are not necessarily dictated by
chronology.
Younger voters would, presumably, bring to bear some important attributes
crusade for some of the major causes - of their generation.
Young people have grown up, and are vastly more comfortable with the diversity th
demographic forecasts say will be a hallmark of the future in North America. I
They have a vested interest in tackling intergenerational inequality and the significant
threat this widening gap poses to our economy.
As recent events in the United States have shown, where Florida teenagers mobilized
demands for action on gun control after a murderous rampage at their high school,
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/20l8/O3/O6/let-16-year-olds-vote-not-a-bad-idea.html 3/4
3/7/2018
Let 16 -year-olds vote? Not a bad idea I Toronto Star
Cia
.-I
,opyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.
K`1 ,i or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior writterf
consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto
Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/03/06/1et-16-year-olds-vote-not-a-bad-idea.htm1 4/4