The Skeena
If you’re 16-years-old in Canada you’re not old enough to buy alcohol or serve in the military. But Skeena MP Taylor Bachrach thinks you should be able to vote.
He recently introduced a bill in Ottawa to lower the voting age by two years. Currently the minimum age is 18-years-old.
“I believe in the power of young people in our society and in our country,” Bachrach wrote on Facebook.
This isn’t the first time that federal policymakers have attempted to lower the national voting age. But usually such bills don’t go very far in Parliament.
Bachrach’s bill, by contrast, “has made it to a second reading and received debate,” the Northern View reports.
Currently, 14-year-olds can register to vote in party leadership races. Bachrach’s private member’s bill is likely a longshot to succeed, but he says it’s only fair that young people have more of a say in federal politics.
“The decisions that the federal government is making and will be making over the coming years are some of the most important ones in our country’s history,” he said last year. “And on no issue is that more true than climate change, the impacts of which today’s young people are going to inherit.”
