The Martlet

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Students, stand up and vote

Whenever an election is called, I hear someone in their 20s say they hate politicians, or they hate the government for not listening to them, or for doing something they disagree with. When I ask them what they’re going to do about it, they say they don’t care about politics and they do something I find supremely stupid: they don’t vote.

I reviewed speeches by some of the great orators (Churchill, Cicero, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy to name a few) thinking I’d write something noble and inspiring to get my colleagues to care about who runs the country. But I’ve tried that; it doesn’t work. So I’ve decided on a different tact to get through to the estimated 62.6 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds who regularly don’t vote. I pose this question to them:

Are you all stoned, dumb as snow or just so consumed by jaded cynicism that you don’t see the point?

Despite all appearances, being a young Canadian isn’t easy. We have serious national problems and we need to solve them. We have a national youth unemployment and underemployment rate now double the average national level. We have a national environmental policy that makes most scientists cringe, an epidemic of student debt, an impending skilled labour shortage that will shake the Canadian economy to its foundations, the possible collapse of medicare caused by skyrocketing costs, and our political system is so broken that our current prime minister described this election as “a dangerous and unnecessary exercise”.

Young Canadians, if you want change, do something that has meaning for politicians: vote. Protests are fine and make for great press coverage, but did anyone ever wonder why no one from the provincial government came out to speak when students protested at the Legislature steps in March? Because they knew that it was temporary — that we would go away and that would be it.

If politicians thought for one second that students voted in any numbers, they would rush out to talk to us whenever we protested. Education would consistently be part of platforms. We are a millions-strong voting bloc spread across the country, concentrated in cities with multiple MPs whose election determines the balance of power in Parliament. If we were active, we could control that balance.

You want this to be your Canada? Then you can’t just protest. When you protest, you say, “Listen to me now — I’m pissed off!” But if you don’t vote, you aren’t protesting when politicians listen the most: during an election.

It’s easy to be angry and throw a tantrum (which is what I think protesting really is). It’s hard to change the government, which is what voting is. If people hadn’t voted, we wouldn’t have a minimum wage, a 40-hour work week, medicare or anything else that makes us Canadians today. But that was our parents and grandparents, not us. We have yet to meet our challenges.

What will you vote for? And more importantly, when will you decide to take 20 minutes out of your busy life to grab a piece of personal mail and an ID card and exercise your democratic rights? Go vote on May 2.