Should Alberta’s voting age be lowered to 16?
Posted October 25, 2022 10:38 am.
Last Updated October 25, 2022 10:47 am.
The Alberta NDP passed a resolution at the annual party convention over the weekend to explore lowering the voting age to 16.
The federal NDP tried to pass a similar motion at the House of Commons last month, but it was voted down by the Liberals and Conservatives.
Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP’s claim is that young Albertans are politically motivated and capable of making those kind of sound decisions.
Heck yes! ????????
Delegates at our @albertaNDP convention just voted overwhelmingly in favour of lowering the provincial voting age to 16!
The high school social studies teacher in me is just so darn excited!! #ableg #abed
— Janis Irwin (@JanisIrwin) October 23, 2022
Chaldeans Mensah, political scientist at MacEwan University, suggests Albertans may be wary of the proposal.
“Decreasing the voting age is going to be viewed with a bit of suspicion here,” said Mensah. “’Is the NDP trying to get a new base of voters?’”
According to Statistics Canada, 66 per cent of Canadians aged 18-24 turned out to vote in the last federal election in 2021 – three per cent higher than the overall rate.
Mensah says while the case could be made to increase voter turnout in a younger demographic, the idea is likely to gain little traction in Alberta.
The professor put the question to his own students recently – young adults – and they were opposed to the idea.
“They said 16-year-olds are impressionable, they’re not ready to make informed decisions on politics, 16-year-olds are typically relying on viewpoints from their family members.”
In a statement to CityNews, the Alberta School Councils’ Association – which represents parent school councils in the province – said it was interested in learning more about the idea.
