Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote in federal elections?
Posted January 28, 2016 4:19 pm.
Last Updated January 28, 2016 4:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) We let them get behind the wheel, but we don’t let 16-year-olds vote. More high school students would be able to vote in the next federal election if a bill introduced in the House of Commons passes.
Voter participation, with the exception of the last federal election, has been trending slowly downward. Vancouver Kingsway’s MP has put forward a bill to lower the voting age in Canada to 16 to help fix that problem.
The NDP’s Don Davies says there are countless reasons to do this. “Studies show that if we can get individuals voting early and in their very first election in which they’re qualified, then they’ll tend to vote for the rest of their lives. Other reasons include a lot of young people 16 and 17 years of age, they work, they pay taxes yet they have no say in how they are spent.”
Davies points out that other countries, like Scotland, Brazil and Austria have successfully enfranchised younger voters.
There may be some people who wonder if teenagers are mature enough to help decide who should lead our country. Davies isn’t worried. “No age group has a monopoly on making stupid decisions. I meet a lot of really young people who are extremely engaged in the world around them. They are paying attention to what’s going on. I know a lot of 17-year-olds that are paying closer attention to politics than a lot of 40, 50, 60, 70-year-olds.”
Canada has changed the voting age before. It used to be 21-years-old and was lowered to 18.
Davies says he was approached right after introducing the bill by a member of the Liberal committee on electoral reform, who told him the idea is already being considered.
