Why Youth Do Not Vote Analysis

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Having the right to vote has been something that has been fiercely fought for many years by different groups of people. Voting has now become become a right, a monumental significance that represents the fight of the people to have their voices heard. Today’s youth have proven to be very ambitious, determined, resourceful but are also known to take their right to vote for granted. Thus, we must question, why has there been such a significant decrease in the amount of young adults participating in voting these past couple years?
The question may be answered by the fact that young citizens do not feel such a pull to the voting booth because they do not feel as though candidates are going to do anything to serve their problems. Young voters also …show more content…

This is down from 70 percent in the 1970s.” These statistics show just how serious the decline in young voters is in Canada. The article further suggests that the candidates are not aiming at the adolescent target audience in terms of representing their issues. Many candidates direct their campaigns to solving the problems that plague the lives of older citizens and people with families. The candidates view the problems of the youth mainly to be childish and therefore a waste of their time and …show more content…

Furthermore, these ‘new’ initiatives are that supposedly targeting the youth were not present when the Harper government set aside a special federal budget to appeal to specific segments of the voting population. Harper, again, like the past politicians targets the seniors and the families. Moreover, it could be said that the youth do not take politicians seriously because they feel misrepresented. This is evident in the 2011 federal election where only a few direct references were made to the youth and even those were negative: ‘youth crime’ or ‘at-risk youth’. Thus, the political campaigns are simply ignorant to the problems of the youth and easily stereotype them as rebellious or selfish. It could then be asserted that if the social attitudes towards teens were more positive, youth would feel more comfortable participating in

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