Should Canada follow U.K.'s lead and lower voting age to 16?

CTV News

2 days ago

For years, some student groups have pushed for Canada to drop the voting age to 16.
And with the United Kingdom last week indicating it will make the shift, calls to do the same here are being renewed.
Among those making the pitch are 18-year-old West Vancouver podcasting twins Jason and Jerry Song, who recently shared their perspective with a B.C. parliamentary committee looking into this issue.
'What the U.K. has done is really set a pace for democratic reform,' Jerry Song told CTV News on Wednesday. 'So, Canada has two options right now. It can keep up, or it can explain to the youth why they've been left out again.'
The Song twins say it doesn't have to be all or nothing, indicating there could be a phased approach in which 16-year-olds vote for school board trustees, but not necessarily members of the legislature or parliament.
And they push back on the idea 16 is too young to vote.
'We never test adults for their political knowledge before letting them vote,' Jason Song added. 'What we do is give people the opportunity to learn by participating. Lowering the voting age actually builds political literacy.'
Austria, Brazil and Argentina are among the countries that have already dropped the voting age to 16.
According to UBC political scientist Stewart Prest, there can be long term benefits for a democracy when people vote early in life.
'We have substantial research that suggests when people are in, if you like, a supportive environment, where they are encouraged to take their early adulthood political experiences seriously, that can create a habit of voting that can last a lifetime,' Prest said Wednesday.
CTV News asked Premier David Eby if it's something his government would consider.
'We are not currently looking at changing the voting (age),' Eby said. 'We will, obviously, watch what happens in the U.K. carefully.'
But at least one local mayor is a vocal supporter of allowing younger people to vote, pointing out how much 16-year-olds in B.C. are already allowed to do.
'We trust 16-year-olds to drive cars in British Columbia,' New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone told CTV News. 'They can do most kinds of supervised work. They can pay income taxes at the age of 16. The legal age of consent is 16.'
While the premier says he's not considering it, a parliamentary committee on democratic and electoral reform has been looking at this issue in recent weeks, with various stops around the province.