Canada has a big problem. Depending on who you ask we may
have plenty, but there’s one in particular that sticks out. The disengagement
of our youth from politics is a huge problem in a democracy. Not only that: if
we don’t vote when we’re young, we won’t vote when we’re older[i].
The folks in Ottawa can debate back and forth about why youth don’t vote, but I
think it’s pretty simple. If you’re not engaged enough with politics, the
accusations, false promises, and scandals are enough to turn anyone off.
Besides, the decline in voter turnout has led to political policy that is not
the least bit directed towards young people, which creates a vicious cycle of
politicians ignoring the youth and the youth ignoring the politicians.
It is hard to distinguish truth from lie. It’s hard to make
sense of the various attack ads. It’s hard to understand how complicated tax
breaks affect a student’s budget. It’s hard to know what each party’s
environmental stance is. Most of all, it will be hard to make an informed
decision come October 19th. That’s where this blog comes in. I love
this stuff, and avidly follow every poll and press release. I am a student with
big dreams and a small budget. My biggest objective with this blog is to break
the vicious cycle of youth being ignored by politicians and subsequently being
reluctant to vote. By breaking down all the nonsense, I want to show what each
government would do and how that affects each young person. In doing so, I hope
that every one of my readers will vote on October 19th, and will understand
who and what they are voting for. I’ll do the reading and dissecting of information
so you don’t have to, and I’ll break it down in easy, understandable analogies
that make sense for the average Canadian under 25.
The problem with
young people not voting
Think of it this way. You’ve come back home for a couple
days in the summer. You have time to go out for lunch with two of your friends
but you know you don’t have time to see all three of your friends. So, do you
pick the friend who shows up 75% of the time, the one that shows up 60% of the
time, or the one that shows up 39% of the time (and bails on you most of the
time). For most people, it’s a pretty easy decision- spend time with people who
don’t cancel and who are committed to you. What happens next is that your
friend who you’ve ignored because he always cancels on you all of a sudden
wants even less to do with you and is going to cancel even more. Before long,
your distant acquaintances who see each other occasionally downtown after a
night of drinking and neither of you give a damn about the other person, even
though if either of you had just given the other a chance, you could have
succeeded and prospered.
Unfortunately this is fairly representative of the decisions
politicians are forced to make on a daily basis. Each political party and each
politician is extremely restricted in their campaign budget, and obviously our
leaders can’t be everywhere at once (although it sure seems like it right now).
Not only that, our government has hard choices about where to spend their
money, and all political parties have been very reluctant to foot the lunch
bill for the voter who only shows up 39% of the time, let alone setting up a
lunch date in the first place! This is not fair. Our issues matter and it’s
time our voices are heard! People under 25 have the highest percentage of unemployment[ii],
our student loans are getting out of control, and environmental and
international issues will affect us for our entire lives. We can stage
protests, we can sign petitions, we can make angry Facebook posts, but at the
end of the day, there is one way for us to get our voices heard. VOTE! Reverse
the trend, and make the politicians give a damn about us. This blog will make
it easy for you, it will break down controversial campaign issues, it will help
you understand what these politicians are really saying, and in return, all I
ask is that on October 19th (or the days before) you make your voice
heard. Whatever party takes office, they will care about the young vote because
we voted and we made a difference.
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| The four main leaders: Elizabeth May, Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair, and Justin Trudeau [iii] |
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