To vote or not to vote

Posted by cwaddell under Election 2008, Election 2008 Student articles

Emily Senger

Lunjia Huang thinks it’s important to vote, but that doesn’t mean she is going to do it.

Huang turned 18 in June, making her among one per cent of the Canadian population who will be old enough to vote for the first time on October 14. She also represents what some advocacy groups are referring to as a democratic crisis—young people who do not vote.

Huang, a Carleton business student, said she wants a leader who cares about the environment and supports gay marriage, but she hasn’t been following the campaign and doesn’t know who that person would be.

“If I get more into it I will probably vote,” she said from a Carleton cafeteria table where she sat with friends Geoff Bosloy and Michelle Forget, both 18-year-old first-time voters. Bosloy said he planned to vote. Forget didn’t.

“I don’t really know much about it and I don’t really want to just go in and vote for a certain party,” Huang said. Forget nodded in agreement.

In the last federal election, 64.7 per cent of Canadians voted. According to Elections Canada, only 44 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 24 voted.

In 2004 the numbers were even lower, with only 37 per cent of people in the 18 to 24 age group voting.

“It’s easy not to care and it’s really easy to pretend that it doesn’t matter,” said Ilona Dougherty, who co-founded the Montreal-based Apathy is Boring project five years ago in an effort to get youth to vote in the 2004 federal election.

Canadians need to be concerned, Dougherty said, because if youth don’t start voting when they are 18, studies show they never will. This, she said, means “our democracy is looking pretty weak.” 

Dougherty, who was 23 when she founded Aparthy is Boring, uses rock concerts, art and an interactive webpage to inform youth voters. The project presents information on how to vote and also campaigns to convince youth their votes do count.

But, Dougherty said making politics appealing to young voters isn’t easy, even with the help of high-profile Canadian musicians, including Joel Plaskett, Tegan and Sara and Jason Collett. 

“It needs to stop being a bunch of old, white guys and that is part of the challenge,” Dougherty said. 

The members of Apathy is Boring aren’t alone in their call for change.

Marc Chalifoux, executive director of the Dominion Institute, a Toronto-based charity that promotes Canadian identity and history, echoes Dougherty’s warning cries.

“We’re extremely worried by the alarmingly low levels of turn out among young voters,” Chalifoux said in an interview from his Toronto office.

Like Dougherty, Chalifoux said he looks to new media, mainly the Internet, to engage young voters.

Last week, The Dominion Institute launched a program called Youth Text, where young voters can text-message questions to a political party who will answer their text within 24 hours.

Chalifoux said he is encouraged by what he sees in the U.S. election campaign, citing the example of the website mybarackobama.com, which is similar to Facebook and acts as a social networking and organizing site for Barack Obama supporters.

Innovative online election campaigns are also making their way north. Canadian political parties are using tools like Facebook, interactive websites and blogs more than ever before, but there is much more to be done, Chalifoux said.

“Political parties need to be doing a better job of engaging young Canadians and engaging their issues,” Chalifoux said, noting he hopes the increased use of new media in this election will translate into a higher youth voter turn out.

Elections Canada has also recognized the problem of youth voter apathy and has made getting information to voters between 18 and 24 a top priority, said Elections Canada spokesperson Serge Fleyfel.

“It’s a phenomenon that we see across democracies around the world,” he said. “There is a lower level of political interest and political knowledge.”

As soon as Canadians turn 18, Elections Canada mails them an information package about how to vote, where to vote, and the many ways to do it, including advanced polling and special mail-in ballots.

“Not having time isn’t an excuse,” Fleyfel said.

But ultimately, said Fleyfel, all Elections Canada can do is provide as much information as possible. After that it’s up to young voters to do the rest.

And many first-time voters like Huang are still making up their minds about this whole election business and where their new voting power fits in.

“I always thought voting was something that my parents would do,” Huang said.