On Jan. 6, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Parliament would be suspended until March 24 as he resigned from his position of prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. With a federal election due this year, eligible voters across the country will be returning to the polls.
However, voting turnout across Canada has seen a wor- rying decline since 2015 where voter turnout percentage sat at 68.3 per cent. Since then, it fell to 67 per cent in 2019 and 62.6 per cent in 2021. While it can be argued that the drop could be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study done by Statistics Canada shows that the most common reason eligible voters did not cast a ballot was due to not being interested in politics at 32 per cent.
How can this worrying statistic be remedied?
One organization looking to get Canadian youth involved in politics is CIVIX Canada, a charity dedicated to strengthening democracy through civics and citizenship education. Around since 2003, CIVIX Canada has involved over 11,000 schools in CIVIX projects and developed five civic education programs.
“The overarching theme or goal of our work is to get young people in Canada as engaged in politics and government as possible,” said Dan Allen, the chief program officer of CIVIX. He added that many young people feel that their vote does not matter.
“One of the meaningful things that we observe in the youth who take part in the programs we run is that they learn more about the issues that are managed or impacted by the government,” Allen said, expanding on the importance of voting and how there has been a “mixed bag” of student reactions when it comes to an interest in being able to vote.
The organization was also involved in the creation of three federal election information tools including Youth Vote Compass, Pollenize and Party Leader Q&A. Youth Vote Compass gives students the chance to share their perspective on political issues to help inform them which political party they most align with, Pollenize showcases where each political party stands on key election issues and Party Leader Q&A allows students to ask political leaders questions.
Another key organization working to get youth involved in voting is New Majority, a non-profit, non-partisan group working to mobilize young and first-time voters.
“it’s important for young people to vote in all elections — municipal, federal and provincial. Millennials and Gen Z’s are the electoral majority, and so young people have the ability to make electoral decisions and decide elections, yet many people feel that they’re not heard by politicians and that the policies and politics don’t reflect the real, lived experience or issues of young people,” said Amanda Munday, the executive director of New Majority. Like CIVIX, New Majority has a variety of tools to help voters become more informed.
One tool is vote.newmajority.ca, a website that walks voters through planning to vote, shows them the candi- dates with their platforms and gives them the option to pledge their vote so they receive a reminder on election day.
“There’s lots of places to look up platforms for candidates and what they’re running on, but we find that a lot of the reason that a lot of people don’t vote is because they’re just missing some of those logistical barriers,” Munday said, explaining how the organization helps young people make voting plans.
A final resource for young voters is Fair Vote Canada, a national citizens’ campaign for proportional representation. Their website, fairvote.ca, has numerous resources to keep voters up to date on election information, including a fact checker made to evaluate claims and misconceptions.
An example of this is a section on extremists, where the organization debunks misconceptions surrounding the term. Other useful sources on the organization’s website include detailed documents on proportional representa- tion and resources for teachers.
“What we see in a proportional system with people who feel like when they vote, that vote matters and that vote contributes to something is that people have far more of a reason to turn up at the ballot box, and that’s why we believe in proportional representation,” said Emerson Howitt, the community engagement coordinator for Fair Vote Canada.
With all these resources available to young voters, have Canada’s major political parties chosen to work with any of these organizations?
CIVIX Canada’s annual Rep Day sees Members of Parliament attend schools across Canada to hold educational meetings where students can ask questions. Between 2020 and 2023, 182 members of parliament participated in 560 Rep Day meetings.
“When Rona Ambrose was the Conservative Party leader, she went to a school in Alberta. Elizabeth May from the Green Party has been to a number of schools over the years,” Allen said. “We’ve had members of all parties take part.”
When it comes to those who have collaborated with New Majority and Fair Votes Canada, results have been mixed. New Majority has had every leader from all parties of the previous federal election send in short one-minute clips to encourage young people to vote.
“We definitely reach out to all parties,” Munday said. “We often hear lots of encouragement and support around our efforts and increasing both youth voter turnout and getting young people excited to make a plan to vote. The parties are supportive, and we also find student unions are really supportive in institutions themselves.”
Fair Votes Canada have received support from the Green Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party.
“Within the other parties, the Liberal Party is unfortunately not a big fan or proportional representation right now, but we know a lot of individual Liberal MPs are supportive of it,” Emerson said.
The Conservative party have also not given direct support, but the team at Fair Votes Canada are working to gain their support.
For those looking to volunteer with these organizations, there are numerous opportunities available.
“We are preparing for the election which might be coming in the spring. If that’s the case, we will be definitely needing help with our distribution,” Allen said.
Similarly, New Majority has volunteer and paid positions. For federal elections they have a national campaign of phone bankers, poll walkers, canvassers and relational organizers where young people are paid $150 for six hours of work.
Finally, Fair Votes Canada is looking for volunteers to get the word out about proportional representation.
With a variety of organizations and resources available to inspire young people to vote, it is more imperative than ever that they have the correct tools at their disposal to make an informed decision when voting.
Bronte Behling/Editor-in-Chief
