Many people who have looked at the rate of voter participation in Canadian elections have expressed concern that there is a problem. A smaller and smaller percentage of eligible Canadians are voting in elections and this is a trend that is generally true in all levels of elections, municipal, provincial and federal.
In particular, concern is raised about the lack of participation of young people in both the voting process and the political process in general. Of course, while this may be a general trend, as with any trend, there are exceptions. While the numbers may not be as high as we would like to see, the fact is that there are many young Manitobans who are interested in public affairs and in politics.
Many of those young people have participated in Youth Parliament through the years. Manitoba Youth Parliament is an organization that has been in existence since 1922. The feature event of Youth Parliament is the session that is held every year between Christmas and New Years at the Manitoba Legislature. Young Manitobans between the ages of 16-20 are able to come, sit in the Manitoba Legislative Chamber, and bring forward legislation for debate. This year, nearly 80 young people participated.
I had the opportunity to speak to these young people last Thursday at the Legislature and once again, as in past years, I was incredibly impressed with how passionate they are about issues and public policy. Many had participated in these debates in past years and so were experienced in public speaking. For others this was their first experience at Youth Parliament and they were overcoming any anxiety they might have had about it.
At Youth Parliament, young people get to set the agenda. Typically, they bring forward ideas which are topical and also a bit controversial. They are not afraid of controversial debate, in fact they encourage it. In the most recent youth parliament session, youth debated legislation that would give police more power to crack down on public protests (a bill whose idea came from the recent protests in Quebec). Another bill would have seen advertisers mandated to use models that represented a variety of body types and weights.
Of course while Youth Parliament doesn’t have any power to actually create laws, the debates are an interesting insight into how young people view the issues of the world around them. It is also encouraging to see so many of Manitoba’s youth interested in public policy.
As politicians our challenge is to do more to encourage young people’s participation in the political process and to help them encourage their piers to become involved as well. Youth Parliament is certainly evidence that it is possible.
