The Power of Youth

Thousands of these young adults are politically informed, politically active and have the concerns and demands many of the people who actually vote have. However, the youth of Canada also have concerns of their own which they are unable to address substantially. People under the age of eighteen for the most part are concerned in matters much different than say an employed thirty five-year-old. The youth under eighteen still are in high school they are concerned about as a grade 10 student from Western Canada High School put "class sizes, teacher disputes, and minimum wage", (Thompson) among other things. He later goes on to state the fact that by the time he has indeed graduated and become eighteen years old, he will no longer be interested in class sizes nor teacher disputes, therefore he will not address them in his decision on who he decided to vote for. This is a very valid argument and it is also true for the most part to say that the voices of these concerned children should be heard via the vote of their parents. The government of Canada sees the parents as a voice for their children, however parents inevitably will vote in a bias towards their needs such as tax cuts. Without the availability and opportunity to vote and voice their opinions in an electoral system the youth of Canada are left to impact the political process in other ways. Thousands of youth are involved in political parties, political rallies and interest groups

Everybody knows exactly who to look to in a crisis. In Tim Grover’s, “Relentless”, Grover speaks of being a cleaner or the most committed competitor striving for an unattainable level of perfection in their given profession. Grover talks about pressurized situations when everything is falling apart and it’s the cleaner, with unflappable confidence, who rises to the occasion to lead his peers into the winner’s circle with him. Gandi is a cleaner, a man so dedicated to what he believed in he was willing to risk his life, all for an unpromised reward. Gandhi had to have confidence to do what he did. The notion that anyone can lead has a speck of truth to it, however where it comes apart is not everyone is willing to sacrifice and have the confidence to lead masses of people with dreams and desires into a situation where the outcome is unknown. That separates true leaders from want-to-be

The message emerging from a recent research series on youth civic and political participation is clear: today's youth are not disjoined from associational and small political life, but they are increasingly disenchanted with formal political institutions and practices. Children and youth under 18 have made sententious strides in recent years toward fuller involvement in democratic processes. These strides,

At 16 we are considered as young adults – accepting responsibilities of our own action – should we not then be treated as one too and hold a position in the political world to prove that we can be trusted to cast our vote wisely. Who is to say at what age we have entered the adulthood mentally and are mature enough, responsible enough to finally be able to vote. Giving the vote to young adults would force politicians to take our needs and desires more seriously instead of it being neglected. By not allowing

In Margaret Adsett’s article on young voters in Canada, she discusses the growing problem of low youth involvement in politics. In the paper, she tries to explain why the number of young voters has gone down from 70 per cent to 40 per cent between 1970 and 2000.

In her article, “Higher Youth Voter Turnout Could Change Election Outcome: Pollster,” Joan Bryden argues that political leaders do very little to engage youth in upcoming elections. Currently, political leaders are focus mostly on older voters who do vote, rather than younger voters who are looking for more change. By only focusing on those who do vote, politicians fail to see how younger voters are more keen on change occurring in their society. As a result, younger voters do not understand what politicians stand for during the election. Political leaders could do more to encourage youth voters by “adopting a more helpful, can-do manner,” through face-to-face interaction and mobile technology, discussing topics of concern such as affordable housing and education, finally, communicating a clear picture of what their party stands for.

The main point according Martin P. Wattenberg in Is Voting For Young People is that young people today do not vote during elections as much compared to other voting groups. Young people today are politically unengaged. “These state patterns of voting participation can be confirmed on the national level by the Census Bureau’s 2010 survey data. Among U.S. citizens under the age of 30 in 2010, only 24 percent reported that they voted.” (Page-188, IVYP) The low attendance of young people voting in Presidential elections indicates that young people do not care enough about politics to participate.

When the time finally comes and teens have the power to vote for the first time in 18 years, they do not. The Youth of Canada do not take full advantage of voting or having a say in politics at all. However, who is to blame. Even through social media, the numbers are rapidly decreasing throughout the youth turnout for voting. If old habits die hard, the future generation will not have a say in any political issue, even if it is affecting them. The youth are not involved enough as they should be in politics at school or at home. It will be hard to create that habit of going out of the way to research politicians and taking the time to choose one that will be in the interests of the country. The Canadian youth have a great potential with growing up and developing the idea that their voice makes no

It has been said that “Today’s youths are the force, the hope and the leaders of tomorrow”. We are the driving force for change and we live with the hope of a better future, we have the ability of not only being tomorrow’s leaders, but today’s as well.

Though youth voter numbers have fallen over the years, it is no indication that youths are becoming less politically agile. Youths are not voting but increasingly getting involved in non-voting political activities. They are boycotting products, attending demonstrations and signing petitions. This indicates that political thought and concern continues to flare within Canadians who do not queue up at polling booths on election days. General apathy towards political parties and leaders and growing perception that politics does not address their needs is keeping voters away. It is therefore for the government, politicians and parties to take steps to rectify the situation. They need to demonstrate greater understanding of youth issues and concerns to win their confidence.

Canada’s voter turn-out is decreasing every year with now only 60% of Canadians voting in the federal election. Most of the non-voters consist of youth, where the majority of the votes come from seniors. Political observers have argued that mainstream politicians ignore youth concerns because they know youth are less likely to vote then seniors. This statement is true and has a negative effect on Canadian youth and Canada as a whole. The negative effects lead to the consequences of the youth feeling unimportant, youth not putting the effort to get educated about politics, and to the lowering turn out of Canadians voters.

“Young people are interested in politics, and do have faith in the democratic process. Nonetheless, the political system and the established parties and politicians that dominate it, are together failing to

American youth, the demographic most important to America’s future, are often excluded from political processes and omitted from election ballots in just about every way. It is my mission as a Junior Statesman and a high school student to break this substandard negative trend, which tarnishes American democracy, by encouraging youth to become more politically active.

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.

Throughout the history of America young people have always played a crucial role in politics. The famous writer Srirangam Srinivas wrote, “Our country is not in the hands of lazy and corrupted old politicians, this country is ours i.e. youth”. Young people between the ages 18 to 25 are the future of this country and its political system. The young people of America have a responsibility to be involved with politics and with their civic duties. The youth in America must be involved in politics to ensure that America stays a country of freedom, and to combat the corruption in politics, they must also be involved with their civic duties in order to give back to their country and to leave a legacy of political and civic participation