A Senate bill to allow 16-year-olds to vote is still alive after a move to kill it failed by a 55-19 vote, says Blacklock’s Reporter..“This is a chance to listen to the youth of Canada,” said Sen. Marilou McPhedran (Man.), sponsor of the measure..Bill S-209 would lower the current minimum voting age from 18. The age was last lowered from 21 in 1970, a measure that added a million voters to the National Register Of Electors..“Young people very much want to speak to senators in their own voices for a deeper examination of this pressing issue,” said McPhedran..“And I do mean pressing. We ask a tremendous amount of our youth and by and large, they respond incredibly well. This is a real issue.”.During Second Reading debate, McPhedran noted 16-year olds are legally permitted to drive motor vehicles, have consensual sex, join political parties and enlist as military reservists..“We give them the opportunity to shoulder one of the greatest responsibilities we can have, serving your country,” she said..“Our young people are mature, informed and engaged enough to vote. Indeed, research would indicate to us that young people today are more engaged, and I can say with some anecdotal experience as a long-time professor and now with a very strong connection to young advisers across the country, that they are more engaged and better informed than I certainly was at their age.”.Similar bills sponsored by New Democrat and Green MPs lapsed in the last Parliament..Some 12 countries and territories worldwide allow children to vote, according to the Pew Research Centre, including Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malta, Nicaragua, North Korea, Scotland, Timor and Wales..Adrienne Clarkson, former governor-general, in 2019 endorsed a vote for sixteen-year-olds, citing the example of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg..“I cheer her. If we lowered the voting age to 16 she and her cohort could create policy and not just suffer from it,” she said..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
A Senate bill to allow 16-year-olds to vote is still alive after a move to kill it failed by a 55-19 vote, says Blacklock’s Reporter..“This is a chance to listen to the youth of Canada,” said Sen. Marilou McPhedran (Man.), sponsor of the measure..Bill S-209 would lower the current minimum voting age from 18. The age was last lowered from 21 in 1970, a measure that added a million voters to the National Register Of Electors..“Young people very much want to speak to senators in their own voices for a deeper examination of this pressing issue,” said McPhedran..“And I do mean pressing. We ask a tremendous amount of our youth and by and large, they respond incredibly well. This is a real issue.”.During Second Reading debate, McPhedran noted 16-year olds are legally permitted to drive motor vehicles, have consensual sex, join political parties and enlist as military reservists..“We give them the opportunity to shoulder one of the greatest responsibilities we can have, serving your country,” she said..“Our young people are mature, informed and engaged enough to vote. Indeed, research would indicate to us that young people today are more engaged, and I can say with some anecdotal experience as a long-time professor and now with a very strong connection to young advisers across the country, that they are more engaged and better informed than I certainly was at their age.”.Similar bills sponsored by New Democrat and Green MPs lapsed in the last Parliament..Some 12 countries and territories worldwide allow children to vote, according to the Pew Research Centre, including Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malta, Nicaragua, North Korea, Scotland, Timor and Wales..Adrienne Clarkson, former governor-general, in 2019 endorsed a vote for sixteen-year-olds, citing the example of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg..“I cheer her. If we lowered the voting age to 16 she and her cohort could create policy and not just suffer from it,” she said..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
