The Voting Age Debate

by Apathy is Boring Intern Chris Cioffi — February 3, 2009

“If criminals can vote, and stupid people can vote, why the hell can’t a 16-year-old?"

The debate regarding lowering the voting age is ongoing and is based on the disengagement of youth from politics. Simply put, youth don't vote. Would lowering or raising the voting age make a difference? Some politicians, policy makers and youth think it would.

Lowering the Voting Age:

“Lowering the voting age will get more people voting”, argue its supporters. Involving youth in the electoral process at an early age will translate into political involvement for the rest of their lives. This argument goes hand in hand with the fact that most 16 and 17 year olds are still in school, offering a perfect opportunity to educate them about the importance of voting.

At the same time, lowering the voting age will create a larger pool of young voters forcing politicians to address more issues concerning young people.

One of the main arguments for lowering the Voting Age are based on the responsibilities that youth already have in our society:  at 16, we’re allowed to drive and are allowed to marry. At 17 we are allowed to join the army. Even though a lot of youth work and pay taxes, we aren’t allowed to vote and have a say.

If youth get into the habit of going to vote early on in life, why not give it a shot? Most 17 year olds will manage to get the day off from the army, pick up their spouse in the car, drive to the polling station, and vote!

Raising the Voting Age:

There are many people who want to increase the voting age instead of lowering it. According to them young people are too immature and too detached from society to be entrusted with the right to vote. They point out that at 18, they’re still children. According to them, young people these days lack civic engagement and do not care about the system around them, citing this survey conducted by Elections Canada as an example:. Immediately after the elections in 2000 one in five young people could not name Jean Chrétien as leader of the Liberal Party and half could not identify Joe Clark as leader of the Progressive Conservative party.

Raising the Voting Age, however, extends the period of time where youth are not involved in the political process. Will waiting for youth to “grow up” really make a difference in voter turnout?

At the end of the day...

The fact is, there is a lot of disinterest on behalf of young people regarding politics: The numbers show that the percentage of young voters has decreased significantly. There is no easy solution to reengage young people into the world of politics; lowering the voting age might be an answer, although nobody’s sure what effect this will have. It’s only been thirty some years that the voting age was lowered to 18 from 21 and now disengagement is a real problem. Whether or not the voting age gets changed, we all need to make a real effort to re-engage youth in our political system.

Brief History of the Voting Age Debate in Canada:

• In 1867 the voting age was set at 21 years old.
• In 1917 the First World War’s Borden government passed the Military Voters Act allowing all persons active in the military service regardless of age to vote. The standards did not change for the rest of the population; 21 was still the required age to vote.
• In 1970 Pierre Elliot Trudeau lowered the federal voting age to 18 by passing the Canada Elections Act. The candidacy age was also set at 18, in the same bill.
• In the 90’s the age question resurfaced and The 1990 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing (Lortie Comission) recommended the voting age to be maintained at 18.
• In the years 2000 the voting age question is once again front and center. In June 2005 a private member bill to lower the voting age to 16, was introduced by Liberal MP Mark Holland. It was defeated.