Generation Squeeze launches election aid for younger voters

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Less than half of voters between of ages of 25 and 34 cast a ballot during the last provincial election.

‘Generation Squeeze,’ which is best known for highlighting housing affordability issues for young people, says its new election aid could prompt more young people to head to the polls.

It has now analyzed all three party platforms according to how their promises would benefit people in certain age categories.

“For instance, for every dollar the BC Liberals are investing in someone over 65, they’re only investing about 17 cents for every person under 45,” says the organization’s Paul Kershaw who is also a professor at UBC’s School of Population & Public Health.

Other findings from the new study include:

• The Green party has the most aggressive plan of the three parties to contain the escalation in home prices.
• The NDP and Greens are much stronger on child care than the BC Liberals. The NDP has a more detailed plan, but the Green party promises to invest more money, faster.

 

“We want this information to be out there, because regardless of how that may influence how people vote, we want the parties to know we are monitoring them. If the parties don’t like that information, then we want them to know that next time they should have a platform that doesn’t play out that way,” says Kershaw.

He stresses the organization is non-partisan and that the numbers were derived using evidence-based methods.