The generation which sustained democracy through and after the Second World War is dying, and the

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

Since 1972, youth voter turnout has been on the decline. According to the Child Trends Databank, 50 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 participated in the 1972 presidential election (2015). Nearly three decades later, the percentage of young adults aged 18 to 24 who voted in the 2000 presidential election had dropped eighteen

Political inactivity on the part of young Americans stems from one fundamental source -- a general cynicism of the American political process. This disdain for politics is further perpetuated by a lack of voter education and a needlessly archaic voting procedure that creates barriers to voting where they need not exist. While many of these existing problems can be rectified with relative ease through the implementation of programs such as Internet voting and better voter education, such programs create only a partial solution.

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,

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 the article “Takoma Park 16-year-old Savors his History-Making Moment at the Polls,” written by Annys Shin, the author focuses on whether or not lowering the voting age from 18 is a good idea towards politics, by looking at the benefits and the disadvantages of both sides. In 2013, the city of Takoma Park was the first to lower the voting age to 16 and change the 26th Amendment in their municipal. Ben Miller and other 16- and 17-year-olds were capable of stepping into a booth and casting their vote at the Takoma Park Community Center. Allowing this age group to cast a vote will lead more teenagers to vote than their older peers, it will get them into the habit of voting for the rest of their lives, and it will also increase their personal

The newest generation, also known as the Millennials, has sparked one of the latest topics of debate and that is voting. Recent examples of young voters excelling political candidates have occurred with Bernie Sanders and even helped bring Barrack Obama into the presidency. These articles by The New York Times delve into the underlying cause of the low turnout rates. Most of these articles place the blame for low voter turnouts on colleges. Colleges are not to blame for these turnouts as they don’t discourage political thinking.

Franklin. The theory proposed in this article is “elections that do not stimulate high turnout among young adults leave a ‘footprint’ of low turnout in the age structure of the electorate” (Franklin, 2004). The methodology involved examine the voting patterns of 22 countries that have held elections continuously since 1945. This number total 356 elections and provides a strong pool of data to draw conclusions from. The results brought forth a number of different variables that impact voter turnout. Such variables are the frequency at which elections are held - the closer together equates to a decrease in turnout, to the impact of lowering the eligible voting age. Interesting any country that lowered the voting age can expect to see a drop of 3.8% in a span of 40 years (Franklin, 2004). Additionally the analysis discovered that the Baby Boomers, which earlier were stated to be 20% more active voters in Canada, are 7% less likely to vote globally than their parenting generation. The conclusion for this article is that there is a reduction in the competitive nature of elections (less likely to bring about policy changes), and a decrease in the age when voters become eligible. Both of these declines generate an environment where the younger

Conservatives receive an increasing percentage of votes in correlation with age and Lib Dem and Labour have high performance among the younger groups. The writer G.B. Shaw once wrote that, 'If you are not a socialist by the time you are 25, you have no heart. If you are not a Conservative by the time you are 35, you have no head'.  There is the entrenched view that young people are more liberal whilst as individuals grow older they become more set in their ways, more wedded to traditional values and attitudes and more likely to believe that Conservative governments are more likely to safeguard their financial and personal security which appear increasingly important in later life. Considering this, surprisingly in the 2010 general election, the ages of 18-24 voted fairly equally between the three main parties with the age bias gap only really becoming apparent from the age 55 onwards. This shows that younger prejudices and party alignment are not as ingrained as that of the elderly meaning that old people may be influenced in their voting behaviour by their age but the same is not as apparent for young people, despite the surface recognition that it is. Yet the implication of young people sharing their votes between parties could be due to other factors, when

“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

In particular, the disengagement of young Canadians from politics as a whole is concern as Young Canadians tend not to vote. This makes sense because young Canadians are typically in a relatively “care free” stage of life. (CRIC, 2001, p. 20) Therefore they do not see how elections could affect their interests or lives. However, the reason of disinterest or lack of motivation is not limited to young people, but true to people of all ages. In fact, after the 2011 election, a poll revealed that 30% of participants cited that they were uninterested in voting. (“Federal Election,” 2011) Though the older a person is the less likely they are to cite this as the main reason why they do not vote. This lack of motivation that people have towards politics is directly related to the lack in interest towards politics. If a person does not have an interest in something, then they do not go out of their way to seek out more information about it. Thus do not become educated or realize the importance of voting to their lives and democracy. This lack of education points to a decline in the importance that politics plays in people’s everyday lives. Canadians have become complacent, and their complacency leads them to the belief that their vote will not count towards making a difference. People are more likely to vote if they believe that their vote counts. (CRIC, 2001, p. 7) However, there are those who

My article from the Monkey Cage is titled “What makes young people more excited about politics? Deciding how to spend municipal budgets”. This article talked about how much the young adult voter turnout rate is very low, but is beginning to rise due to the topic of participatory budgeting. I learned that participatory budgeting is basically a type of democracy, in which ordinary people get to decide where the public budget goes to the reason that youth are interested in participatory budgeting, is because they feel like their voice is actually being heard. In addition, youth like it when young people approach them about politics better when someone older does so because they feel like their more equal. It also states that youth think, it is

Many issues within our world go unsolved purely due to apathy. Case in point, a glaring lack of public political discourse inclusive of youth has built barriers at the poll booths. This lack of voters becomes a lack of representation, leading to displeased constituencies, states, and, ultimately, nations with unpopular leaders. Perhaps worse than any apathy is an attitude that’s come to dominate discussions relating to race, class, and gender- “It’s always going to be that way.”

Back when the 2016 election was full-force, there was one candidate that drew in younger voters more than any other. He was a 76-year-old career politician. This man was Bernie Sanders, and even though my peers and good ol’ Sanders were insurmountably distant in age, he understood the political culture of the United States’ youth. He discussed issues that affected the kids of our future, such as education,

When the founding fathers drafted the Constitution their main focus was creating a nation where everyone would be free from the restraints of a controlling government and treated equal. America has always been a nation of freedom, and needs to remain that way. The youth in this country is charged with the task of ensuring that America remains the “land of the free”. Without involvement in politics this is not possible. If youth are to maintain the American ideals of freedom and equality it is imperative that they be involved in politics. Voting every four years for the president, who is more of a figure head than anything else, is simply not enough. Young people need to take a more active role in politics such as running for a political office, local or national. This is the only way they will be able to put their beliefs into action and ensure that America upholds it’s long standing values of freedom and equality. The youth need to start taking action as soon as they are old enough. However, young people need to be educated on politics and be firm in their beliefs before delving into the world of politics. In recent years the youth have shown a trend of disengagement and apathy toward political involvement. According to “The Good Citizen”, a book written by Russell J. Dalton, political analysts and politicians agree that the youth are losing interest in politics and