The Young Voters' Debacle

First and foremost, I would like to apologize for not posting yesterday. Please forgive me. I'll try to make up for the lost day, I promise.

Carrying on...

I had a brief, but interesting discussion this morning after networking group. One of the participants is a volunteer with one of the major political parties (which he would neither confirm nor deny). He and one other group member started to discuss who will likely win which riding, and so forth. Of course, these were all the viewpoints of people who are much older than myself (if any of you are reading this, by no means am I calling you old), so I opted to input a perspective from a person who happens to be in her early twenties: my own. I had suggested that if the party leaders were smart, they would listen to Rick Mercer's rant regarding the Federal election, and seriously consider targeting the youth, those of us who are between the ages of 18-25. Well, wasn't that the spark of something interesting, or perhaps that's just my youthful perspective. Apparently party leaders don't target the youth population because we supposedly don't care, and therefore can't be bothered voting. I happen to strongly disagree with this idea. Perhaps that's because I voted in my first election at 18, and I have made damn certain to vote in every election since. From that volunteer's perspective, he's gone door to door, trying to talk to people about voting, and people just don't seem interested, especially we young people. I'd suggested that perhaps the reason why many youth don't bother to vote is because the party leaders and their cohorts have never actually stopped and considered what might be important to those of us of the younger generation, let alone actually ask us for our input. Now before anyone goes jumping down my throat, hear me out. A few years ago, I was wandering through the commercial buildings at the Binbrook Fair with a couple of friends of mine. There was an election coming up (please forgive me, but I cannot remember if it was Federal or Provincial), and though the four major parties had booths at the fair, only one was smart enough to nab my friends and I. Was it a party I was considering voting for? No, however, the representatives mentioned that they knew we young people were the next generation of voters, and if any time was a good time to try to convince us of a party to believe in, nabbing us while we were young was the best way to go. Yes, we young guns are stereotyped with what's important to us: education and jobs, but can you blame us? From the time we start pre-school to the time we're finished grade twelve, we're taught that you can't get a job unless you have a post secondary education. Okay, fair enough, but that still doesn't completely explain why something like jobs and education are important to us youth. College diplomas and university degrees don't come cheap! Unless you qualify for OSAP, are smart enough for scholarships, or are awarded bursaries, an education is one of the biggest purchases, if not the biggest purchase, that a young person is going to make. If our fancy pieces of paper don't land us jobs, how are students supposed to pay off their debts? Not itty bitty debts that are $10 here, or $300 there, but thousands of dollars! Now do you see why education and jobs could be considered important to young people? If I had to choose, I'd say education would be most important right now, and not just so we can have better professions as the results. As I've stated, school is terribly expensive. If a party leader were to say, "if elected Premiere of this wonderful province we call home, I'll lower the costs of post-secondary tuition," holy snappin', do you realize how many youth just might be turned onto voting?

See? Finding out what's important to us wouldn't be a waste of time, because remember, one day, we will be the ones determining who leads us in this wonderful province and great country of ours. Be smart, and start convincing us now! 

For more on my views about voting, please refer to my post, "Your Paper Voice," which can be found in the September section.