Dear Editor,
BC Greens Leader and MLA Andrew Weaver, last Monday in the Legislature, re-introduced a bill aiming to reduce by two years the age required to vote in British Columbia’s elections.
It is Dr. Weaver’s third attempt at what would be a pioneering change to the dynamics of the last 41 general elections contested in the province, if it were to be adopted by the Assembly.
The proposition of the three-member Green Caucus is being presented as John Horgan’s minority New Democratic government is setting the final details of an upcoming referendum on proportional representation (PR) in B.C. - a referendum that has acted as a sealant for the confidence and supply agreement signed by the New Democrats and the Greens last summer.
While it, and the referendum on PR, may be cynically depicted as an avalanche of unjustified and supposedly democratic reforms for this rocky province by its caricaturists - most of them sitting in the Official Opposition benches - it fundamentally is a change for the betterment of democracy in B.C.
As reformist as the idea of lowering the voting age seems, it is not unheard of in Canada or around the world. In fact, our own Member of Parliament, Nathan Cullen, had suggested the same change to the federal Canada Elections Act.
Scotland, another parliamentary democracy, lowered its voting age to sixteen after it had found it successful in increasing Scottish youth turnout. The CBC recently reported a “big jump in voter turnout for young people in [the BC] 2017 election” - a jump largely due, the article says, “to greater percentages of younger voters casting ballots: 51.7 per cent of registered voters under 45 voted, up from 45.1 per cent in 2013”.
Whether the political offer in the 2017 election had to do with increased participation is up to personal interpretation, but we should not and cannot be indifferent that just one in two electors below the age of 45 cast their ballot in the last election.
Lowering the voting age, as Scotland has, coupled with educational measures, could well be an antidote to cynicism about elections among B.C. youth, and for the intergenerational legitimacy of today’s elected officials.
It has been said time and time again that the earlier in life someone casts their first ballot, the more chances there are that this person will vote for life, and what better time and place is there to introduce B.C.’s future electors to the societal importance of fair and democratic elections than when they are learning about them in schools?
B.C. students already are required to study Politics and Government as part of their Socials 11, Civics 11, or First Nations Studies 12 class. Any politician will tell you that, during election campaigns, many of the toughest, most researched and thorough questions come from high school all-candidates debates.
An MLA went as far as saying to Black Press columnist Tom Fletcher that he “got beat up in high schools” during the campaign last spring.
Denying young British Columbians the means to have their opinions voiced and their voices heard is contradictory to the typical politician’s saying that they do what they do for their children and their future.
The introduction of a bill aiming to reduce by two years the age required to vote in British Columbian elections will be a litmus test for the government and oppositions’ commitment to the well-being of younger generations.
Cedrik Verreault
BC Young New Democrat Representative and Media Coordinator (on the Executive of the Skeena BC NDP)