Young people vote in lower numbers than average

Young voters aged 18-25, like these St. Clair College students, have a lower turnout than the national average. (Photo by Sidharth Krishna)

Low youth voter turnout is a concern frequently discussed during elections.

According to a study from Elections Canada, in the 2015 general elections only 57.1 per cent of registered youth voters participated in the voting process, a statistic much lower than the national turnout of 66.1 per cent.

The statistics are surprising, because a study by the Dominion Institute showed that 78 per cent of youth between the ages of 18 and 25 felt that their vote mattered.

“People don’t see the value behind voting, they don’t see the importance of voting to democracy,” says Cheryl Collier, an associate professor of political science at the University of Windsor. “Part of the disengagement (to the voting process) is a lack of attention to civics education. We don’t really put a lot of effort into making sure that citizens think it’s important to exercise their democratic right to vote.”

Collier also said that the “political class” is disconnected from what matters to people. But there may be a solution to this.

“When you’re thinking about partisan outreach, parties have lots of ability to be on social media,” says Collier. “They could actually pay attention to youth in policy that they’re thinking about. They could be doing things to engage with youth leaders across the country, to think of ideas about the environment because that’s something the youth care about.”

In a country like Canada, where youth comprise 19.2 per cent of the population, political parties could attain tremendous success if they acquire the support of young voters.