標題: Mike de Jong suggests lowering voting age to 16 [打印本頁] 作者: tiffiant 時間: 2010-12-15 18:22 標題: Mike de Jong suggests lowering voting age to 16
Mike de Jong suggests lowering voting age to 16
Liberal leadership hopeful: fewer young people are voting
Dan Burritt Dec 15, 2010 10:15:49 AM
62 Comment(s) 2 Recommendation(s) Related Stories
•Mike de Jong joins race for Liberal leadership
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Sixteen-year-olds voting in provincial elections? It's one idea being floated by a Liberal leadership hopeful.
Mike de Jong says he's trying to win a leadership contest, in which 14-year-olds can vote. With less than a quarter of BC's young people casting a ballot in provincial elections, he believes lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 can be one way to reverse the trend.
He tells us, "Allowing grade 12 students to fully participate when they have a driver's license, when they are subject to adult provisions of the criminal code, I think is a logical step. And hopefully [it] will begin to create that culture of engagement."
de Jong says, "At my Open Mike sessions, the idea that has emerged that I am very drawn to is to say to graduating students in their grade 12 year, 'This is part of graduating to society. In your graduating year, you will be entitled to participate and to vote in the provincial election.'"
But does that mean schools would become battlegrounds for votes as candidates stop by to shake hands? de Jong says, "Could be. In May of 2013, we'll put polling booths in all or most high schools across the province. Voters will come in. The one group that won't be able to participate are the grade 12 students that are actually at the schools."
Meanwhile, BC Teachers Federation President Susan Lambert thinks de Jong's idea has merit. "I think it should not end or even begin at voting. It should be a comprehensive program where we talk to students about critical thinking, about the policies and issues of the day."
As for candidates going to schools to get the vote out, Lambert says that would be supervised by teachers, but they would not get partisan.
Another Liberal leadership candidate George Abbott also supports the idea saying, "In today's day and age, I think it's very important to engage our youth in public life. Increasingly we expect them to carry the responsibilities of adulthood, but rarely do we give them the rights to have their voices heard."
Mike de Jong suggests lowering voting age to 16
Liberal leadership hopeful: fewer young people are voting
Dan Burritt Dec 15, 2010 10:15:49 AM
62 Comment(s) 2 Recommendation(s) Related Stories
•Mike de Jong joins race for Liberal leadership
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Sixteen-year-olds voting in provincial elections? It's one idea being floated by a Liberal leadership hopeful.
Mike de Jong says he's trying to win a leadership contest, in which 14-year-olds can vote. With less than a quarter of BC's young people casting a ballot in provincial elections, he believes lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 can be one way to reverse the trend.
He tells us, "Allowing grade 12 students to fully participate when they have a driver's license, when they are subject to adult provisions of the criminal code, I think is a logical step. And hopefully [it] will begin to create that culture of engagement."
de Jong says, "At my Open Mike sessions, the idea that has emerged that I am very drawn to is to say to graduating students in their grade 12 year, 'This is part of graduating to society. In your graduating year, you will be entitled to participate and to vote in the provincial election.'"
But does that mean schools would become battlegrounds for votes as candidates stop by to shake hands? de Jong says, "Could be. In May of 2013, we'll put polling booths in all or most high schools across the province. Voters will come in. The one group that won't be able to participate are the grade 12 students that are actually at the schools."
Meanwhile, BC Teachers Federation President Susan Lambert thinks de Jong's idea has merit. "I think it should not end or even begin at voting. It should be a comprehensive program where we talk to students about critical thinking, about the policies and issues of the day."
As for candidates going to schools to get the vote out, Lambert says that would be supervised by teachers, but they would not get partisan.
Another Liberal leadership candidate George Abbott also supports the idea saying, "In today's day and age, I think it's very important to engage our youth in public life. Increasingly we expect them to carry the responsibilities of adulthood, but rarely do we give them the rights to have their voices heard."
