During one of his typical rants, when he was one of the hosts of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer pointed out that "if you retired in 1995, you’ll get seven times the amount of money you put in, and if you’re under 25, you’re gonna pay in twice as much and get less money." He explained that then finance minister, Paul Martin was "Counting on Two things: that people under 25 don’t vote and they don’t pay attention to pensions."
Almost 10 years later, the fact remains that most people 35 years or under believe they are more likely to see aliens than a pension. The question is why do young people, who are going to be stuck paying for today's decisions, care so little?
Attempts by political parties, celebrities and the government itself to get youth engaged in the political process have had less than stellar results. Remember Madonna wrapped in the American flag, encouraging MTV watchers to "Rock the Vote"? Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine’s free concerts in support of Ralph Nader? The culture of activism is alive with young people. This is the generation that grew up with Earth Day and have vivid memories of the Seattle & Quebec City WTO riots, so drawing them from activism to engagement at the polls shouldn’t be a huge leap.
But politicians looking to target these groups to cultivate a new market of support have some serious work to do. Youth voter turn out is notoriously low. In the last provincial election, only 27 per cent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 voted. The percentage goes up for people 25-34 years old, but not to a level that would indicate they are engaged.
The point becomes more striking in Whistler’s case when you consider the median age of our residents. According to the 2004 Resort Community Monitoring Report, "the age distribution of Whistler residents is less balanced than is typical for the province as a whole. With fewer children, youth and seniors, and a larger percentage of young adults, Whistler’s age distribution is centred around a median age of 30 years, eight years younger than the provincial median age of 38 years.
"Sixty-four per cent of Whistler’s population is between 20 and 44 (16 per cent aged 20-24), compared to 36 per cent for the province. Fourteen per cent of B.C.’s population is over the age of 65, whereas in Whistler, people aged 65 and over make up less than 3 per cent of the population."
Whistler’s young people are punching well below their weight, if properly mobilized they could set the agenda for our community. Sadly that opportunity has yet to be seized.
Money Matters
Gleaning insights about what makes young people engaged can be a tricky task, but if you ask the right people, you get meaningful answers. The right people, in this case are Kiran Pal and Greg McDonnell. Kiran is the genius behind, and co-ordinator of Whistler’s LUNA (Late and Unique Night-time Alternatives) Program.
The effects of LUNA’s endeavours have resulted in a significant contribution to keeping youth engaged and out of trouble. Greg is the Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS) youth outreach worker, and both have their finger on the pulse of Whistler’s young people. Both commented that some contributing factors to youth apathy included a cultural slant toward delaying adulthood and adult decisions.
"So little responsibility is given to young people, compared to other cultures, everybody thinks that somebody else will take care of it," Pal says. "So why would they need to step in?"
McDonnell agrees saying, "it’s a real culture that the decision will be made for them vs. other cultures where kids are asked to make decisions and even sacrifices."
Their theory is backed up by research from D-Code, a Toronto-based strategic consulting and research company’s report called "Citizen Re:Generation Understanding Active Citizen Engagement Among Canada’s Information Age Generations." The report confirms that youth lack opportunities for engagement: "The extended life stage often involves a lack of independence. About 41 per cent of Canadians in their 20s were living with their parents in 2001, compared to 27 per cent in 1991." The report also suggests that income plays an important role: "In 1997, the poverty rate was 58.2 per cent for unattached young people. Census data confirms that Canadians under the age of 30 earned less in 2000 than they did in 1980, despite a 41 per cent increase in post-secondary education since 1991."
Lack of meaningful career opportunities and financial freedom leaves many young people feeling marginalized. The report goes on to say that, "Without the privileges that class and income provide, prolongation of the youth life-stage is, on many levels, an extension of powerlessness, dependence and inequality." The old adage about the golden rule – the ones with the gold make the rules – seems relevant in explaining why politics is so far off the radar screen for young people. In a typical election, senior citizens are mentioned nearly three times as often as youth and are seen by most politicians as the most important demographic group. Winning elections by appealing to these citizens clearly overshadows any focus on developing a youth engagement strategy.
Damian Kettlewell understands the relationship between politics and money. He’s 33 and the Spokesperson for the Vancouver Point Grey Green Party Constituency Association. He was also a candidate in the 2005 B.C. Provincial Election, running a well-publicized campaign against Premier Gordon Campbell. He explains how funding works: "Funding doesn’t come from youth; it comes from middle aged, middle income people." It also explains the uphill battle facing small parties. Kettlewell added that "a lot of things come down to fundraising… it’s a real challenge for smaller parties."
The reality for most people under 35 is that they can’t invest in anything they can’t eat. The aforementioned anxiety about pensions is a nearly irrelevant "gee it would be nice to have that problem" issue. What is relevant is paying back student loans, making a career or starting a business. By the time they’re 32, most Gen X’ers have thought about or started their own business (and FYI, 80 per cent of all new jobs are created by entrepreneurs and small businesses). What is relevant to the younger audience is even more micro financing issues like the cost of a bus pass.
Todd Hauptman is a perfect example of an engaged youth. He’s a 19-year-old student holding down two jobs to pay for school and he’s a grass roots organizer for the Langley Conservative Party Constituency Association. He first got involved in politics when he was 14 when an interest in journalism led him to approaching the Langley Times newspaper to write a story. While interviewing a politician, he got some non-partisan advice and encouragement to get involved with a political party that matched his values and what he cared about. He suggests that politicians try to remember what was important to them when they were young and focus on those issues.
"Create a personal connection to a specific issue like public transportation because it’s relevant to young people. They use public transportation," Hauptman says.
He also has some ideas on how young people's frustration with politics can be mitigated. "Having good leaders that listen." And to move youth from bystanders to participants: "Take an event like Live8 and make poverty history and show the link between engagement and results. Young people need to know that their voice is respected and then they’ll feel like making a contribution."
Technology helps
Back to Rick Mercer. In November 2000, he asked Canadians to call for a Federal Referendum, one that would require then Canadian Alliance leader, Stockwell Day, to change his first name to Doris. Over a two-day period, a quarter of a million people voted online, with new names being added at the rate of 10,000 per hour. In the final tally, over 400,000 people voted.
Currently, many reality TV shows count on millions of viewers to decide winners and losers of various talent contests. And the trend might be coming to the ultimate reality show, the Houses of Parliament. Elections Canada reports that, "support for on-line registration has been growing in recent years, as evidenced by responses to Elections Canada post-event surveys conducted after the November 2000 general election. When asked to think ahead three or four years, 70 per cent of electors stated that they would like to register to vote on-line."
This is good news for the tech-savvy generations who, since infancy have faced a barrage of technology and information available 24 hours a day. Technology, if used wisely, has the potential to create democracy in ways we’ve only imagined.
But managing information and adapting to information overload, are two different things. As Kiran Pal points out, not all information is retained. "If you’re constantly bombarded by so many messages you really just choose which ones you want to believe. There are very few things that you can concentrate on at once if you really want to know about them. The rest just fall by the wayside, especially in a generation where everything is now."
Hauptman offered his own advice on how political organizations can tap into this diverse, mobile, technophile group. He suggests doing three things: "One, you need to be responsive to the Internet, text messaging, and pod casting. Two, make the message relevant to young people or it’s not going to reach them; it has to be something that is important, like tuition fees, not RRSP’s. Sixteen-25 year olds are not thinking about retirement."
His third point is surprisingly low tech. "Talk to young people, go to the skate park and talk to them, have coffee shop night, and go to youth events."
Don’t "rock the vote"
On the subject of youth events, everyone interviewed suggested that politicians could boost their "street cred" with youth by participating in youth oriented activities. The line was clearly drawn on Rock the Vote initiatives and the consensus was that they don’t work. As Kettlewell points out, "trying to make voting cool doesn’t impact cultural attitudes. I believe there has to be better things than throwing a big party to get people out to vote. What really works is showing politicians doing cool things. For example in New Zealand they have a higher youth voter turnout, and politicians are seen backcountry skiing and talking about the eco tourism economy. Politicians need to get out and do things that youth participate in, whether it’s going to the skate park or some other youth-oriented activity, but you rarely see that here."
Hauptman backs up what Kettlewell says. "Rock the vote initiatives don’t effectively sell the idea; it has to have meaning. Really, they are just trying to make voting cool but we need to change the culture, we need to move people from Me to We."
In the last provincial election, millions were spent on Get Out the Youth Vote initiatives, and it failed. The lesson from that should be that you can’t create a sense of urgency or passion for something that doesn’t resonate with young people.
McDonnell suggests that youth can be mobilized but they need to start the ball rolling themselves. "What is important to them and gets them fired up is something they believe in and care about; if they have some knowledge about something specific and if they can tell that people’s rights are getting trampled then they’ll speak out about it. If it’s just a matter of vote for this person, they’re not going to really see any immediate changes."
Kettlewell suggests diversifying the array of candidates as a way to attract new voters. "It’s important to get multi-disciplinary people involved in politics; the musicians and writers. There’s an impression that politics is simply the realm of lawyers and the wealthy. It’s important to have people of diverse backgrounds so that young people can relate to those candidates."
Kettlewell also suggests that politics should be an easy entry for those already engaged in community initiatives. "It’s a matter of moving beyond the local Search and Rescue team or arts council or homeless shelter and getting involved in the political scene, and making it attractive to people from different backgrounds to step up to the plate as candidates."
John Westin might be considered a typical politician. He’s the Conservative Party candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast in the next federal election and he’s a lawyer by profession, except he’s a human rights lawyer and a writer working to alleviate poverty. He’s also passionate about politics and recognizes the importance of engaging youth via a culture of activism.
"The political process is about achieving social justice. I’m also a human rights lawyer and I’ve been involved in World Vision and Food for the Hungry International. It was serious work but we had fun working together."
As for how to move young people from protests to the polls, Westin suggests using specific issues and putting them in a local and global perspective. "We can attract more youth by appealing to social justice issues that resonate with young people. We need to create a culture of helping and looking out for your neighbours, in the Sea to Sky corridor as well as globally."
Local issues are often more relevant to people than national politics because at least they have a chance of influencing outcomes, and in the case of Whistler, you never know when you could be sitting on a chairlift or the bus with a city councilor.
Historically, politics both locally and globally, have been dominated by big ideas and sometimes big thinkers, but in our current zeitgeist of accelerated change and social transformation, there appears to be a void of exciting ideas. True, there is no shortage of crazy ideas, but what is required is the kind of ideas that create lasting positive social change.
If the ultimate responsibility of a leader is to create more leaders then it’s essential, in a town with such a young population, to embrace some ideas that engage youth, like a youth advisory council. The process of increasing youth voter turnout will begin when we finally grasp that the young need to be engaged on their own terms and they need to be supported in developing new ways to be involved. We must foster ideas that are responsive to young peoples’ potential and capture the youth of the community's imagination.
