Edmonton public school board backs lower voting age
原始发布日期： 2017-06-21 发布者：玉山字变大 字变小
 Colbe Haldane watches his mother Kim vote at the Terwillegar Recreation Centre in advance polls, Oct. 8, 2013. Edmonton's public school trustees added their support to a growing number of groups calling for a lower civic voting age in Alberta. School trustees voted 8-1 in favour of lobbying Alberta's municipal affairs minister to amend the Local Elections Authorities Act to extend the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds. In split votes, both the Edmonton Catholic school board and Edmonton city council have voted for similar advocacy, at the prompting of the City of Edmonton Youth Council. Trustee Nathan Ip said the youth council attempted to advance a similar change when he served on it 15 years ago, and is happy to see it progress. Society is incongruent in how it treats youth, telling 16-year-olds they're mature enough to drive a car, or even pilot a plane, but not to vote, Ip said. Lowering the voting age to 16 yielded high turnout among teens in elections in Norway, Scotland, Austria, and Tacoma, Wash., youth council member Thomas Banks told the board Tuesday. “A lower voting age is a change which would re-energize engagement in our municipal democracy," he said. Trustee Bridget Stirling said it was provincial cuts to public services that first piqued her interest in education when she was a teen. “I didn’t have much interest in going to a bar, but boy, did I want to go vote," she said. Research shows when students become more engaged in politics, it spurs their parents to pay more attention — not the other way around, Stirling said. Trustees hope lowering the voting age could help renew interest in civic elections, where councillors and trustees are selected. Board chairwoman Michelle Draper, who brought the motion forward, said she hears discouraging feedback from people while door-knocking, who say they feel their vote doesn't count, or that they'll choose the candidate with the "coolest name." The turnout in Edmonton's 2013 election was around 35 per cent. Trustee Orville Chubb was the lone voice of dissent, citing a survey done earlier this year by the school district's student senate. A poll of 850 students found 55 per cent were in favour of lowering the voting age to 16, which prompted the senate to avoid making any specific recommendation to the school board. jfrench@postmedia.com Twitter.com/jantafrench |