Tuesday, October 8, 2019 ~ WEST SHORE
by Mary P Brooke, Editor ~ West Shore Voice News
Even though the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) voted in favour of it at their annual convention in September doesn’t mean that attentive adults — even the politically eager ones — don’t see a problem with pushing for voting at age 16. Currently in BC and in Canada the voting age is 18, as it is for most other adult realms of authority.
Any parent will tell you that even the brightest, most well-informed and well-intentioned teen who is age 16 or 17 does not have the full appreciation of consequence that comes with greater age (include age 15 in that, for any teen eager to vote right away at 16). Would you make any of the same choices now that you made when you were 16 or 17? We’ve all been there. Full disclosure, I am the mother of four amazing grown children.
If we ‘believe science’ about climate change, why not believe the science (MRIs and other tests) that show the human brain does not reach full maturity until age 25? (There could be an entire essay about mixing the word ‘belief’ with ‘science’ but we’ll leave that for another day.)
In this editorial space we have also addressed the consideration that in BC the law allows teens age 16+ to authorize medical personnel to withhold medical information from parents. There have probably been many instances of harm due to this misguided ‘Infants Act’ in BC — the Eurchuk case in Oak Bay last year being a high-profile one. The Infants Act states that children under 19 years of age may consent to a medical treatment on their own as long as the health care provider is sure that the treatment is in the child’s best interest, and that the child understands the risks and benefits of the treatment. Again, likely not an appreciation of full consequence.
Back to the voting. Arguably, most of the youngest voters would lean left. This is not a commentary on whether ‘right or left’ is better in politics, only that bringing in a strong contingent of voters age 16 and 17 would tip the vote much differently than the system does now. If proportional representation were in fact the voting mechanism in BC, it’s less likely the push for voting-at-16 would have been so strong at UBCM (the motion came from the City of Victoria).
Most observers of the political process would likely agree that voting young creates a voter for life. The civic process deserves full participation, but grabbing for nubile teenage minds is not a suitable way to achieve that. Preferably, politicians need to do a better job of convincing adults why it’s important to vote, using effective discourse to gain the respect of the populace throughout the election cycle (not just at election time).
=========
Hashtag for this is #Vote16
This editorial was first published on page 2 in the October 4 to 7, 2019 weekend digest edition of West Shore Voice News .