True Patriot Love

00:00:00.000 in an earlier episode of jim lang's podcast he and i had a discussion about youth becoming part of

00:00:14.400 the electoral process here in canada it's happened in other parts of the world and now we're talking

00:00:19.260 about doing it here in canada hi i'm mike wixon tpl media and joining me today jerry and jason

00:00:25.040 from vote16.ca a movement to get youth voting from the age of 16. hey guys thanks for joining me

00:00:32.640 thank you so much for having us on thank you for having us on so it seems to me that this is uh

00:00:39.280 not just a movement it's also a trend i'm noticing uh young people uh sort of a younger demographic

00:00:45.940 than we expect in canada engaging in politics is that your experience as well guys for sure yeah

00:00:53.360 i can take this question and jerry you can jump in whenever um but yeah i think young people are

00:00:57.980 engaged right now and i don't think it's only a sentiment or you know seeing people on the street

00:01:02.620 but like if you look towards actual factual data elections canada for instance found that 16 and

00:01:08.240 17 year olds are just as politically engaged if not more so than the people who can actually vote today

00:01:13.980 and the people who are currently in our electorium so i think the common question that people ask is

00:01:19.180 if young people are so engaged if we look towards you know youth voter turnout rates why have they

00:01:25.080 been so consistently low and stooping in such recent years and i think the answer isn't what you know

00:01:31.320 critics of vote16 say it isn't apathy it isn't you know factors like laziness or too busy you know 0.76

00:01:37.540 doom scrolling or just doing like stupid things but rather i think it's a problem with motivation that

00:01:43.600 vote16 uniquely solves when 16 and 17 year olds are locked out of the democratic process in of itself 0.93

00:01:49.940 and which often means that their concerns their issues their voices are completely ignored and

00:01:56.220 neglected because of an arbitrary age limit i think there's very little incentive for youth 16 and 17

00:02:03.280 year olds especially to actually engage and speak out on the issues that they care about or the issues

00:02:08.180 that pertain to them and will hurt their lives for you know the rest of however many years are on this earth

00:02:13.460 so i think the important thing to note here is that this exclusion principle creates a vicious

00:02:19.220 self-repeating cycle if you will where youth feel very very unheard and then they begin to disengage

00:02:25.140 and ironically they're blamed for their very own silence and i think importantly uh the phrase that

00:02:30.640 we love to say here is that the youth never stopped caring the system stopped caring about them

00:02:35.500 i kind of remember being a little more politically activated uh in my youth and i think that there

00:02:42.580 is a certain energy that comes with that um what got you guys engaged you're in western bc uh do you

00:02:49.760 think that this is a pocket of movement that is only happening in the west coast of canada

00:02:54.500 how did you get engaged and what are you noticing across the country

00:02:57.980 yeah um i'll take this on so i think this for the first part of your question is is this a movement

00:03:06.080 specifically located only on the west coast or only in where we're from and the answer to that is no

00:03:11.740 it's a very widespread uh and a very prominent uh issue and people are advocating it for it youth and

00:03:18.840 adults alike across canada so there's a very strong movement here uh in bc but in ontario in other

00:03:25.460 places around canada it's also a very vibrant community of young and older advocates fighting

00:03:30.540 for the issue uh and for the second part of your question on how jason and i got engaged um there's

00:03:36.120 a very long backstory to it but long story short we had the immense privilege of volunteering at our

00:03:41.920 local member of parliament's office and there what we normally do is we read through correspondence

00:03:47.200 uh sometimes we analyze policy briefs um but we just really get to see and flag what the

00:03:52.380 constituents are writing to the mp about and what their major concerns are and when you look at it

00:03:57.840 for a very long time you you end up seeing a very glaring problem which is that in like the thousands

00:04:03.560 of hundreds of tens of thousands of emails that you see in front of you there's very little that

00:04:08.720 pertains to youth very little that's on youth concerns and very little frankly written by youth

00:04:13.980 themselves and you start to think why is this a problem and importantly this isn't a problem

00:04:18.840 with the mp uh but rather a problem with the entire system as jason just previously explained

00:04:25.300 which is that they don't have any motivation when they're literally excluded from the democratic

00:04:29.400 process of voting itself and so this really got us thinking on how we can actually help solve this

00:04:35.260 issue that's currently facing in front of us and um what jason and i ended up doing was we created

00:04:40.580 a podcast uh you can see it somewhere around my head it's called twin talk politics it's literally

00:04:45.900 twins talking about politics but the entire goal of this podcast is speak to politicians themselves

00:04:51.020 and ask them the questions that youth have been wanting answered for a very long time and the goal

00:04:56.500 of our podcast is really to get youth into politics and i guess how we got into vote 16 is one of the

00:05:03.260 questions that we ask all of our guests is you know how can youth become more engaged within our democratic

00:05:08.440 process and a very um prominent answer and one that's that spreads across many party lines and across

00:05:15.740 many of our guests is extending the low voting age to 16 and through that that's how we got engaged with

00:05:21.360 the federal movement and now um we're working extensively on the bc one guys what are some of the

00:05:27.220 issues that we're missing uh uh in in our uh 50s and 40s that the youth really are amazed that we can't see

00:05:36.220 through for sure i can tackle on this question i think there's a couple parts to this obviously i

00:05:42.840 think the issues that pertain to youth also pertain to other generations as well but importantly i think

00:05:48.220 it's including their voice inside the discussion right the argument we're trying to make is not that

00:05:52.780 you know youth issues are more important than the issues of our parents for the older generation but that

00:05:58.220 that everyone in canada should deserve a voice and i think that our issues are just as important

00:06:03.500 as any other issue in the electorate right so issues that pertain to youth a lot more probably

00:06:08.840 than uh the older generations look like uh probably post-secondary education and the incredible amount

00:06:15.140 of cost it takes that actually right now actually discourage a lot of individuals from even stepping

00:06:20.720 foot into the door for post-secondary education it looks like our thoughts on climate change and a

00:06:26.400 desperate need for us to actually tackle this issue because frankly in the next i don't know 10-12 years

00:06:32.040 if we don't fix this issue we currently do not have a future we don't have you know a future we

00:06:36.680 can't enjoy life or we can't pursue our interests the world as we know it comes to a halt um other

00:06:42.200 issues like you know the evolving job market where it's so consistently hard now to lock down a stable

00:06:47.300 long-term job or the housing epidemic these are all issues that youth need to have a voice in right now

00:06:53.060 okay so how many people in canada have uh become part of this movement that are in the you know 16

00:07:00.820 to 18 category that currently are not voting um yeah i can jump in on this question so um i think as i

00:07:08.760 mentioned uh previously there's a lot of advocates working on this issue uh and a lot of them are part

00:07:14.640 of like the official vote 16 umbrella but often there's a lot of young advocates that may not have

00:07:19.780 may not be part of the official movement but fighting their own campaigns um and i would say

00:07:24.500 there's quite a lot uh we're very widespread and i don't think that our advocates and people fighting

00:07:30.760 for this issue are only limited in the age bracket from 16 to 18 i know um one of our leaders that is

00:07:37.080 fighting for vote 16 at a very high federal level um is far beyond uh 18 years old but if you truly

00:07:44.120 believe in this issue um you'll continue fighting for it and just an example jason and i just turned

00:07:49.140 18 um this year and we had the wonderful privilege of voting in our first ever federal election um but

00:07:55.860 even after we can vote we've really got to see firsthand how it feels and you're literally included

00:08:01.200 in democracy and we know what that means for so much for our 16 year old selves so that's why we're

00:08:06.740 continuously fighting for the movement and i don't know so many of my friends are continuously

00:08:10.820 fighting for this movement even after um they're uh beyond 18. yeah i'll quickly jump in here um as

00:08:17.380 well as i don't i as jerry said that you know the advocates who are fighting for vote 16 like are not

00:08:24.100 only from the 16 and 17 age bracket that cannot vote right now so if we look towards actual uh parliament

00:08:30.140 in canada if you look at the countless bills that have been put um like on the senate floor on

00:08:34.880 on the floor of the house of commons you know i'll point your direction towards senator mcbedrin who has

00:08:40.280 been such a vital backbone to this entire movement and i propose so many bills consistently in the

00:08:46.200 senate sitting um you know if you look back at uh bill s uh 201 and now in the now sitting in the

00:08:53.240 senate of bill s 222 which is again the bill to extend the voting age 16 and it's very important to

00:08:59.460 note that vote 16 is a widespread movement across all you know provinces and territories of canada but

00:09:05.100 also in our highest forms and highest levels of government right now so who do you have to appeal

00:09:10.520 to outside of the government is elections canada getting involved in this process with you

00:09:15.100 um i'll jump in on this question not directly um but they have been giving us uh and elections canada

00:09:21.900 have been conducting their own research that's very vital towards our movement it seems to me that

00:09:27.960 once you make a vote uh you've picked uh you've picked a winner as somebody that you believe in

00:09:33.740 somebody that can lead the country or the province or even your municipality uh do you think that that

00:09:39.660 then engages you more in the community to hold that government accountable to support the things

00:09:45.680 that they're doing that you voted for does it actually create more engagement in society do you think

00:09:51.140 for sure yeah uh i think a hundred percent i think that's what voting truly is about regardless of

00:09:59.180 your age if you you know if you're casting a ballot you know the entire promise is that the system will

00:10:04.860 represent you will listen to your ballot and listen to your issues and that will be reflected in you

00:10:09.400 know the promises um of you know whoever is running in the election i think insofar as you know that

00:10:15.200 your voice actually matters you're so much more likely to be engaged in democracy whether that means like

00:10:20.700 um you know researching all the people on your ballot the candidates researching about the issues

00:10:25.100 that matter to you because you know that your voice finally matters i think it makes a huge difference

00:10:29.440 and will inspire so much more you to turn out and just taking along here even in schools where you're

00:10:35.540 learning about civic education or you're learning about our formal electorate uh and federal governing

00:10:41.080 systems when you're learning about all these things and you're in school thinking oh i'm gonna not i won't

00:10:46.860 even need to use any of this information until i'm out of high school why should i actually be listening

00:10:51.500 right now it's there's a very little incentive for for youth to actually pay attention to to these

00:10:56.740 systems compare that to when they actually know that they're going to go out and vote in two months

00:11:01.240 time they're going to be much more engaged and much more eager to learn where do you guys get

00:11:06.000 your information about politics the uh the stands that politicians are making what is your source

00:11:12.260 of uh i don't want you to feel pressure to say true patriot love but what's your source of

00:11:17.860 information do you go to social media is it the standard standard traditional media that you go to

00:11:23.300 how do you inform yourself about your vote right yeah i can jump in here i think um just in terms of jerry

00:11:30.260 and i our sources of information and news and current media are very widespread obviously um so we look

00:11:37.100 at a bunch of different news sources as you said a lot of traditional media uh we listen to uh like

00:11:42.720 podcasts hosted by radio stations as well um read a lot of the news online as well and as you pointed out

00:11:48.600 on social media as well um i think we look from a wide variety of different sources so not specifically

00:11:56.160 a source that leans a certain political position so i think we're able to get you know a more holistic

00:12:00.640 stance on you know uh government and what's happening in politics and i think that's really useful

00:12:05.080 um in terms of translating that to you know a podcast or discussions which we like to keep

00:12:09.960 um non-partisan as we are a non-partisan uh podcast and non-partisan i have to tell you i i really

00:12:15.580 think that i would be engaged by your podcast you guys really uh you work well together uh one point

00:12:21.640 against the other so i commend you for that a couple of last questions here one where else in the world

00:12:26.260 is this working yeah i'll jump in here there's 17 different countries already in our world

00:12:35.060 that have extended the voting right to 16 and 17 year olds at least in one uh one level of

00:12:41.900 government so whether that be locally um provincially or federally um and some big names um that uh that

00:12:48.720 are already involved in this movement so very recently the uk just passed allowing 16 and 17 year

00:12:54.360 olds to vote federally um but there's also been a long-standing list of different countries that have

00:12:59.740 supported vote 16 for extended period of time so whether that be scotland um uh malta cuba among

00:13:08.220 many others very interesting uh if people wanted to so what happens next what do we need to do to get

00:13:15.280 16 year olds voting this has to become a law uh where are we in that process and and uh what can

00:13:20.360 people do to to encourage it if they wish for sure i can sort of speak on uh what's happening in the

00:13:25.980 movement around you know laws right now and jerry maybe um after you can jump in how we can support

00:13:30.860 so yeah as i was saying previously there has been so much of a push um you know in our area of bc but

00:13:36.980 also you know at a at a bigger federal level so i'll start in the bc area where we're located so

00:13:43.320 recently the legislature so the provincial government actually opened up a special committee

00:13:47.940 on uh democratic and electoral reform uh where jerry and i had the immense privilege of presenting

00:13:53.180 and there we heard so much different constituents uh from all age groups you know go up and recommend

00:13:58.720 the idea of extending the voting age to 16 and 17 year olds in different levels of government right

00:14:03.900 so starting municipally and then in like school trustee and school board elections and then moving

00:14:09.260 up you know municipally and then provincially so we do hear so much support on a provincial level and

00:14:14.660 we've seen it in government right so the three different times that this bill of you know extending

00:14:19.840 the voting age 16 has been on the provincial floor and if we look even at municipally um there has been

00:14:25.220 14 different uh municipalities and school boards that have endorsed vote 16 bc and even at the ubcm

00:14:31.760 convention in 2019 it was unanimously supported upon but if we look towards the federal level again

00:14:37.380 there's been so much support right so in the previous sitting um in the house of commons taylor

00:14:42.840 back rack uh proposed the bill private members bill bill c 210 which you know is the bill of vote 16

00:14:48.900 and it was so close to getting to second reading um you know if we turn a few more heads it had a

00:14:53.600 really clear shot and i think from that there was such a huge movement of youth you know gathering

00:14:58.720 uh behind it and really pushing that bill forward but it was well in the senate you know right now if

00:15:03.540 you want to support bill s22 s222 is currently on the senate floor and the previous couple times this bill

00:15:10.740 was you know proposed it was so close to you know reaching the next stage whether it be committee

00:15:15.280 stage or second reading and i think if we just turn a few more heads it will definitely help and i think

00:15:19.880 as jerry said with the uk a commonwealth country now you know it's allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote at

00:15:26.640 the highest level of government with this with the 17 different countries like argentina scotland austria

00:15:32.660 all these countries now allowing to 16 years to vote i think it's a really high chance that you know

00:15:37.920 we'll see 16 and 17 year olds being able to vote um in canada soon and just to jump in here um if you

00:15:44.880 are very supportive of the movement and really want to get in there's multiple things you can do so if

00:15:49.520 you want to really take it forward obviously campaigning and fighting on your own in your own

00:15:53.900 municipality so standing up uh in your own city council and asking your own council to support vote

00:16:00.220 16 is a great way forward but obviously that's asking a lot so i think just for the general populace

00:16:05.920 who are just trying to rally behind this issue one of the best things you can do is just talk about

00:16:11.360 the issue with your friends and family right oftentimes when it's when you're thinking of

00:16:15.180 politics at a dinner table you're not really thinking of the issue of vote 16 and just speaking

00:16:19.700 to a lot of people have opened their mind about it because it's not many people a lot of people are

00:16:25.300 very against vote 16 it's just a fact that not a lot of them have even entertained the question or

00:16:31.200 the possibility because this isn't a very widespread topic so if we can just increase the conversation

00:16:36.060 around it and get more people thinking about it that's a really great way forward

00:16:40.100 it's so funny that you say that because in the discussion we this is uh by the way once again

00:16:45.740 this is a follow-up uh to a discussion i had with jim lang on his show about uh getting the vote to 16

00:16:52.180 and uh my immediate reaction was what we see how it seems impossible that we could get responsible

00:17:01.120 votes out of 16 year olds that's the truth that's what i that was my initial gut response that's

00:17:06.880 because i've had teenagers however it then occurred to me that most of my uh broken opinions most of

00:17:13.360 the opposition i've had to my thinking politically uh most of the mind expansion i've had uh on talking

00:17:20.180 politics has come from discussing it with the youth in my home uh who often have very strong opinions

00:17:26.080 have uh the desire to find solutions and uh so the more i thought about it the more i thought i need

00:17:33.060 to follow up on this because i think that there's something more to this than my initial reaction to it

00:17:39.260 so i think discussion is a good way to go about it uh vote 16.ca is where people can get more info

00:17:45.720 100 yeah yeah so that that's a great resource where you'll see a lot of different tabs that you

00:17:52.500 can click around it's amazing you can see all the municipal campaigns that are currently happening

00:17:56.880 in canada across the different provinces and territories uh you can find our dedicated team

00:18:01.880 there you can find a bunch a whole host of resources why the voting age should be extended to

00:18:06.880 16 and 17 year olds you can read a lot of briefs if you like data there's ton there um if you like news

00:18:12.680 articles there's a bunch there so definitely a great host of resources uh there for everyone

00:18:17.360 um to read and get uh and gander through i appreciate that have you guys considered which

00:18:22.500 one of you is going to run for prime minister because this could be a discussion you're going

00:18:26.340 to have to have you know although you might get away with both running for prime minister and none

00:18:32.120 of us would know yeah uh we haven't thought about that so far but uh i guess never say never uh i

00:18:40.600 really hope that it's people like you in the future that are thinking about running for uh government

00:18:45.840 at any point uh or any level of government because you're thoughtful guys and you're making a movement

00:18:52.180 you've passed the the era by which you have to be supporting this because you can vote now and

00:18:56.720 you're still doing it and i commend you for it thank you guys for joining us and uh talking about

00:19:01.800 uh vote 16.ca thank you so much thank you so much for having us on it was truly a pleasure

00:19:07.220 you

Teens Want the Ballot — Should They Get It？｜ Mike Wixson with Jerry and Jason from Vote16

Episode Stats

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Transcript

True Patriot Love

Teens Want the Ballot — Should They Get It？ ｜ Mike Wixson with Jerry and Jason from Vote16

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Teens Want the Ballot — Should They Get It？｜ Mike Wixson with Jerry and Jason from Vote16