by Jennifer Brooke ~ for West Shore Voice News
Sunday, October 21 ~ VICTORIA.
I’m 20 years old. I’ve been around for two elections now in BC: the provincial, and the municipal. But even before I was old enough to vote, I noticed a troubling pattern in many political campaigns that’s still very much prevalent: anyone who wants the youth vote caters to all the wrong things about the youngest voters.
You think ‘going for the youth vote’, and there are some images that come to mind: Justin Trudeau posing for selfies with teenagers (who, in some instances, were actually taking a video, asking him a hard-hitting question about his policies). Trevor Barry calling himself a #n3rd. Even in the States, Hilary Clinton had a Vine account when it was still going.
Politicians of an older generation, in a desperate attempt to get the youth vote, aren’t really addressing what youth care about. Trying to show off your knowledge of memes and text abbreviations doesn’t get my vote, just an eye roll. What it tells me is that your precious time and energy was put into something superficial when it could have gone to actually addressing our concerns.
Understanding a new voting group requires work to get it right, not the use of reactive campaign tactics. Taking youth seriously is inevitable for politicians. My generation is the one that will clean up the mess that baby boomers have left in their wake. Power and privilege will shift from the hands of those who have been clinging to it for too long.
We the youth want affordable housing. We want affordable food and schooling. We want an end to homelessness. We want accessible healthcare to accommodate the astronomical rates of mental illness. We want an increased minimum wage, and access to higher paying jobs. We want better sex education in schools that is LGBT+ inclusive and heavily discusses consent. We want spaces to learn the languages and heritages our families never taught us so we’d fit in. We want clean air and water by the time we’re your age.
Politicians: we’re watching, we’re smarter than you think, and we know what we need—what the world needs. It’s not anything that will evolve from old ways of thinking, or old institutions that keep a select few in power. We were given a messed up world to fix.
Come with us to reshape it, or be left behind. Actions speak louder than words. Candidates that genuinely addressed progressive change in a way that youth could get behind seemed to do well on October 20 in several municipalities in the Greater Victoria region. Change has begun.
Jennifer Brooke is a Camosun College arts student and freelance writer/photographer. She is a contributing editor to West Shore Voice News.