Georgia Straight – Nov 8th, 2018 – The total number of youth heading to the provincial ballot box has remained stagnant and distressingly low over the past decade, seeing only slight fluctuations since 2005. In the last B.C. provincial election, only 49 percent of voters ages 18 to 34 cast their ballot. It thus bears the question of why?

In an age of millennial scapegoating, it’s easy to pin low youth voter turnout on millennial apathy, adding our most cherished democratic institution to the long list of things that pundits allege young people seek to destroy (after the diamond industry, and 9 to 5 jobs). From 1980 to 2015, federal voting patterns among young Canadians fell well below other age cohorts—a trend that is also reflected at the provincial level. And while research has traditionally suggested that voter turnout strengthens with age, this too seems to be weakening.

Yet in other respects it is clear that young people are far from apathetic. Youth in B.C. exercise their democratic and civic rights every day, through consistently high levels of involvement in civic activities such as volunteerism, student organizing, community service, campaigns, and so on. In addition to this, today’s Canadian youth are more educated, socially engaged, and connected than any generation previous—rendering arguments pointing to lack of political education, incomplete. Moving beyond voter apathy then, the answer to why youth voting turnout remains low could be simple: young people seek the same things that other Canadians seek—to see themselves represented in the institutions that govern them.

Young voters have been traditionally underrepresented at every level of Canadian politics. B.C.’s current provincial legislature features only one MLA under the age of 35—NDP MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale, Bowinn Ma. 

Read the full article at the Georgia Straight here: https://www.straight.com/news/1162176/bridgitte-taylor-proportional-representation-encourages-future-generation-voters