Now that the British government has vowed to lower its voting age to 16 by the next general election, one Canadian senator says it’s past time for Canada to do the same.
The U.K. announced last week that it would lower its voting age from 18 to 16 in a bid to strengthen British democracy and restore trust in politics.
Sen. Marilou McPhedran said the issue has been her “top parliamentary priority” since she joined the Red Chamber. She said lowering the voting age to 16 would be good for democracy and that the only arguments against it are “based on stereotypes.”
McPhedran said decisions being made in Canada now will affect younger generations and that extending voting rights to younger people is “logical” and “about fairness.” She added that about a third of 16-year-olds in Canada have some form of employment and are already taxpayers.
Sixteen-year-old Jaden Braves and the organization he leads, Young Politicians of Canada, want to see the federal voting age lowered to 16. He told The Canadian Press that Canada “has to stop living in the shadow of other countries’ innovation that’s progressing faster than ours.”
“I think we need to stop being the country that waits for somebody else to take leadership on something we clearly have the chance to progress forward on,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll learn some lessons soon.”
Braves lamented the many bills that have been introduced in Canada over the past 20 years to lower the voting age that ultimately failed to pass.
McPhedran’s most recent bill to lower the federal voting age to 16 was introduced at the end of May. She said it’s her priority to get it to second reading and into committee when Parliament resumes in September.
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“What happened last time was prorogation and an election,” she said.
Prorogation killed the bill after it reached second reading in the Senate.
“But this time our push is to ensure that young voices, young leaders are heard directly by senators, and I feel quite confident that when that happens, skeptics will turn around,” McPhedran added.
McPhedran said she thinks what’s happening in the U.K. will “make a difference” for a number of senators as she continues to push the bill forward.
During debates on previous bills, some senators and MPs have pushed back against arguments in favour of lowering the voting age, such as the suggestion that it would increase voter turnout. Some have also questioned the maturity of youth to cast an informed ballot and debated what standards should be used to justify whether to lower the voting age.
Britain’s voting age last fell in 1969, when the U.K. became one of the first major democracies to lower it from 21 to 18. Many other countries quickly followed suit; Canada lowered its voting age to 18 in 1970.
Several countries already have a voting age of 16, including Austria, Brazil and Ecuador. Scotland and Wales allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local and regional elections.
Michael Wigginton, a post-doctoral fellow in political science at Carleton University, said the U.K. government’s decision represents a “fairly natural progression,” coming a decade after Scotland started allowing 16-year-olds to vote for members of the Scottish Parliament and in municipal elections.
“Having that sort of local example to point to makes it easier for both politicians and the public at large to feel comfortable that the reform can work for the U.K. Parliament and not have negative effects,” said Wigginton.
Efforts are being made across Canada to lower the voting age.
In 2021, young Canadians filed an application at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to challenge the voting age, arguing that the Canada Elections Act is in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is unconstitutional.
Toronto recently passed a motion allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in polls at the neighbourhood level on planning and policy issues. And a provincial committee looking at ways to boost democratic engagement in B.C. is examining a lower voting age.
Wigginton said that while he doesn’t expect Canada to immediately adopt a voting age of 16, having the U.K. as an example will “definitely push the issue into the spotlight more and increase the chances of it happening it the future.”
“What I see is most likely is that one or more provinces will adopt a lower voting age first and then the federal government may eventually follow suit,” he said.
— With files from The Associated Press
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