Youth voting on the rise in Windsor

By Lyndi-Colleen Morgan

In past elections Windsor has seen a small turnout of voters under the age of 24 but during the 2015 elections Windsor may see a change in the number of youth voters.

This federal election will be the first for many, including Katlynn Klassen and Courtney Vanzeggelaar who both voted.

Vanzeggelarr and Klassen are St. Clair College students living in residence. They returned to their home town of Tillsonburg to vote at the advanced polls Oct. 9.

“We are the future,” said Vanzeggelaar. “We will be living through these changes. As we get older it’s going to be more important, so we might as well start when we are younger.”

The candidates for the Tillsonburg riding are Melody Ann Aldred for the Chrisitian Heritage Party of Canada, Mike Farlow for the Green Party, Zoe Kunschner for the New Democratic Party of Canada, Dace Mackenzie of the Conservative Party of Canada, and Don McKay of the Liberal Party of Canada.

In previous voting years the majority of voters had been people over the age of 65 with few voters between the ages of 18 and 24.

An article published after the 2011 federal election said only 39 per cent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 voted, with the highest percentage of voters between the ages of 65 to 74, which totaled 75 per cent.

“I think that a lot of young people don’t vote because they think it’s just one vote and it doesn’t matter for anything,” said Klassen.“They don’t care who’s elected and they think it won’t have an effect on them when really it does.”

Statistics Canada polled youth aged 18- 24 and found that 30 per cent said they are not interested, 23 per cent said they are too busy and 11 per cent said they are not close to their local riding.

Vanzeggelaar said another reason may be the topics of discussion in the election and the impacts they pose on youth.

“I think to this point there haven’t been really any topics that have interested youth,” said Vanzeggelar. “If more candidates had talked about things like OSAP, which applies to most young people, I think more youth would have voted. If I could I would have voted.”

All three political parties have added topics such as student tuition costs and debt reduction plans, which may result in an increase of youth votes at the poles.

A 2015 article posted by the Canadian Federation of Students said 425,000 students were forced to seek financial assistance to finance their education. It also states the average debt for Canadian college students is $28,000. Klassen estimates her student debt will be $8,000.

“What if they don’t vote? What if someone gets elected that’s going to raise our tuition costs?”said Klassen. “That’s going to affect students all across Canada and I don’t think they realize that. It’s hard enough to pay as it is.”

The advanced polls ran from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12

Elections Canada has also set up a system that will provide those who cannot return home with a way of voting.

Oct. 19, is election day. Information about polling stations and times are available on the distributed voters cards and www.elections.ca.