Students rise to the voting challenge
Posted by nicolesharlene on 2011/04/05
Guelph University students are making a stand and trying to encourage young Canadians to vote on May 2nd.
About 200 rain soaked students gathered outside the hotel where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to hold a Conservative election rally.
The mob chanted, “We will vote!” above drums and bagpipes.
The event was organized on Facebook and wasn’t designed to show support for any of the political parties. The goal is to get youth out to the polls.
Canadian youth are often considered apathetic, unengaged and disinterested when it comes to politics and electoral participation.
Voter turnout between the ages of 18 and 24 was a measly 34 per cent compared to the national turnout rate of 57 per cent in the 2008 federal election.
Monumental demonstrations like this prove there are youth out there who have a voice and want change within our country.
This movement came a week after CBC’s Rick Mercer challenged all youth to take twenty minutes out of their day and cast a ballot. It’s refreshing to see a television personality like Rick Mercer using his fame for the greater good of young Canadians.
Mercer is a young influential man that young people can easily relate with. He isn’t confusing young people with political jargon. Mercer is reaching out to young people in a way that politicians have neglected to. He’s addressing the issues that matter to young people such as high tuition rates and student loans. Ontario has the highest tuition rates of any other province in Canada. Post secondary education costs will continue to soar unless students stand up and say, “we’ve had enough!”
By telling students that tuition costs and student loans could be lowered if they vote, Mercer is forcing young people to get engaged.
Mercer is honest and blunt about the facts surrounding youth and politics. Telling young people that they if they don’t vote than they might as well be serving time in prison or dead as far as the political parties are concerned is a brilliant motivator.
Our members of parliament could learn something from Mercer when it comes to engaging youth in politics.
Politicians are spending countless amounts of money campaigning and advertising trying to entice people to vote in their favour. Elections Canada is commissioning a voter survey aimed at encouraging disengaged young people between the ages of 18 to 34 to vote. It only took Mercer minutes to get young people interested and looking forward to participating in the May election.
It would appear the days of disengaged youths are over.
